:i^~^ 


*V 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

SANTA  BARBARA 

COLLEGE  OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 


MR.AND  MRS.R.W.VAUGHAN 


fl 


AN  INLAND  VOYAGE 


AN    INLAND   VOYAGE 


BY 

ROBERT   LOUIS  STEVENSON 


^''Thus  sang  they  in  the  English  boat" 

Marvell 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1895 

\_Atl  rights  reserved'^ 


VNTVr.nsiTY  OF  CA  MFORNIA 
SANTA  BARJARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


PREFACE   TO   FIRST   EDITION 

'T'O  equip  so  small  a  book  with  a  preface 
is,  I  am  half  afraid,  to  sin  against  pro- 
portion. But  a  preface  is  more  than  an 
author  can  resist,  for  it  is  the  reward  of  his 
labours.  When  the  foundation  stone  is 
laid,  the  architect  appears  with  his  plans, 
and  struts  for  an  hour  before  the  public 
eye.  So  with  the  writer  in  his  preface  :  he 
may  have  never  a  word  to  say,  but  he  must 
show  himself  for  a  moment  in  the  portico, 
hat  in  hand,  and  with  an  urbane  demeanour. 
It  is  best,  in  such  circumstances,  to  rep- 
resent a  delicate  shade  of  manner  between 
humility  and  superiority :  as  if  the  book 
had   been  written   by  some  one   else,  and 


vi  Preface  to  First  Edition 

you  had  merely  run  over  it  and  inserted 
what  was  good.  But  for  my  part  I  have 
not  yet  learned  the  trick  to  that  perfec- 
tion ;  I  am  not  yet  able  to  dissemble  the 
warmth  of  my  sentiments  towards  a  reader ; 
and  if  I  meet  him  on  the  threshold,  it  is  to 
invite  him  in  with  country  cordiality. 

To  say  truth,  I  had  no  sooner  finished 
reading  this  little  book  in  proof,  than  I 
was  seized  upon  by  a  distressing  apprehen- 
sion. It  occurred  to  me  that  I  might  not 
only  be  the  first  to  read  these  pages,  but 
the  last  as  well  ;  that  I  might  have  pio- 
neered this  very  smiling  tract  of  country 
all  in  vain,  and  find  not  a  soul  to  follow  in 
my  steps.  The  more  I  thought,  the  more 
I  disliked  the  notion  ;  until  the  distaste 
grew  into  a  sort  of  panic  terror,  and  I 
rushed  into  this  Preface,  which  is  no  more 
than  an   advertisement  for  readers. 

What  am  I  to  say  for  my  book  ?  Caleb 
and  Joshua  brought  back  from  Palestine  a 


Preface  to  First  Edition         vii 

formidable  bunch  of  grapes ;  alas  !  my 
book  produces  naught  so  nourishing  ;  and 
for  the  matter  of  that,  we  live  in  an  age 
when  people  prefer  a  definition  to  any 
quantity  of  fruit. 

I  wonder,  would  a  negative  be  found 
enticing  ?  for,  from  the  negative  point  of 
view,  I  flatter  myself  this  volume  has  a 
certain  stamp.  Although  it  runs  to  con- 
siderably upwards  of  two  hundred  pages, 
it  contains  not  a  single  reference  to  the 
imbecility  of  God's  universe,  nor  so  much 
as  a  single  hint  that  I  could  have  made  a 
better  one  myself. — I  really  do  not  know 
where  my  head  can  have  been.  I  seem  to 
have  forgotten  all  that  makes  it  glorious 
to  be  man. — 'Tis  an  omission  that  renders 
the  book  philosophically  unimportant ;  but 
I  am  in  hopes  the  eccentricity  may  please 
in  frivolous  circles. 

To  the  friend  who  accompanied  me,  I 
owe  many  thanks  already,  indeed   I  wish 


viii        Preface  to  First  Edition 

I  owed  him  nothing  else ;  but  at  this 
moment  I  feel  towards  him  an  almost 
exaggerated  tenderness.  He,  at  least, 
will  become  my  reader  : — if  it  were  only 
to  follow  his  own  travels  alongside  of 
mine. 

R.  L.  S. 


TO 

SIR  WALTER  GRINDLAY   SIMPSON,  BART. 

My  dear  Cigarette, 

It  was  enough  that  you  should  have  shared  so 
liberally  in  the  rains  and  portages  of  our  voyage  ; 
that  you  should  have  had  so  hard  a  battle  to  re- 
cover the  derelict  Arethusa  on  the  flooded  Oise  ; 
and  that  you  should  thenceforth  have  piloted  a 
mere  wreck  of  mankind  to  Origny  Sainte-Benoite 
and  a  supper  so  eagerly  desired.  It  was  perhaps 
more  than  enough,  as  you  once  somewhat  piteously 
complained,  that  I  should  have  set  down  all  the 
strong  language  to  you,  and  kept  the  appropriate 
reflexions  for  myself.  I  could  not  in  decency  ex- 
pose you  to  share  the  disgrace  of  another  and  more 
public  shipwreck.  But  now  that  this  voyage  of  ours 
is  going  into  a  cheap  edition,  that  peril,  we  shall 
hope,  is  at  an  end,  and  I  may  put  your  name  on  the 
burgee. 

But  I  cannot  pause  till  I  have  lamented  the  fate 
of  our  two  ships.  That,  sir,  was  not  a  fortunate 
day  when  we  projected   the  possession  of  a  canal 


X  Dedication 

barge  ;  it  was  not  a  fortunate  day  when  we  shared 
our  day-dream  with  the  most  hopeful  of  day- 
dreamers.  For  a  while,  indeed,  the  world  looked 
smilingly.  The  barge  was  procured  and  chris- 
tened, and  as  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins  of 
Cologne,  lay  for  some  months,  the  admired  of  all 
admirers,  in  a  pleasant  river  and  under  the  walls 
of  an  ancient  town.  M.  Mattras,  the  accomplished 
carpenter  of  Moret,  had  made  her  a  centre  of  emu- 
lous labour  ;  and  you  will  not  have  forgotten  the 
amount  of  sweet  champagne  consumed  in  the  inn 
at  the  bridge  end,  to  give  zeal  to  the  workmen  and 
speed  to  the  work.  On  the  financial  aspect,  I 
would  not  willingly  dwell.  The  Eleven  Thousand 
Virgins  of  Cologne  rotted  in  the  stream  where  she 
was  beautified.  She  felt  not  the  impulse  of  the 
breeze  ;  she  was  never  harnessed  to  the  patient 
track-horse.  And  when  at  length  she  was  sold, 
by  the  indignant  carpenter  of  Moret,  there  were 
sold  along  with  her  the  Arethusa  and  the  Cigar- 
ette, she  of  cedar,  she,  as  we  knew  so  keenly  on  a 
portage,  of  solid-hearted  English  oak.  Now  these 
historic  vessels  fly  the  tricolor  and  are  known  by 
new  and  alien  names. 

R.  L.  S. 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 

Antwerp  to  Boom i 

On  the  Willebroek  Canal        ....  9 

The  Royal  Sport  Nautique     ....  18 

At  Maubeuge 28 

On  the  Sambre  Canalised  :  To  Quartes         .  36 
Pont  Sur-Sambre  : 

We  are  Pedlars 46 

The  Travelling  Merchant     ...  56 

On  the  Sambre  Canalised  :  To  Landrecies    .  65 

At  Landrecies 74 

Sambre  and  Oise  Canal  :  Canal  Boats   .        .  82 

The  Oise  in  Flood 91 

Origny  Sainte-BenoIte  : 

A  By-Day 104 

The  Company  at  Table           .        .        .  115 

Down  the  Oise  :  To  MoY          ....  126 

La  FfeRE  OF  Cursed  Memory     ....  135 

Down  the  Oise  :  Through  the  Golden  Valley  145 


Xll 


Contents 


NoYON  Cathedral       .        .        .        , 
Down  the  Oise  :  To  CoMPifecNE 

At  COMPlfeGNE 

Changed  Times 

Down  the  Oise  :  Church  Interiors 
Pr^cy  and  the  Marionettes     . 
Back  to  the  World  .        .        .        . 


PAGE 
149 

162 

170 
180 
191 
209 


AN   INLAND  VOYAGE 


ANTWERP   TO   BOOM 

\17E  made  a  great  stir  in  Antwerp  Docks. 
A  stevedore  and  a  lot  of  dock  por- 
ters took  up  the  two  canoes,  and  ran  with 
them  for  the  sHp.  A  crowd  of  children  fol- 
lowed cheering.  The  Cigarette  went  off  in 
a  splash  and  a  bubble  of  small  breaking 
water.  Next  moment  the  Arethusa  was 
after  her.  A  steamer  was  coming  down, 
men  on  the  paddle-box  shouted  hoarse 
warnings,  the  stevedore  and  his  porters 
were  bawling  from  the  quay.  But  in  a 
stroke  or  two  the  canoes  were  away  out  in 
the  middle  of  the  Scheldt,  and  all  steamers, 
and  stevedores,  and  other  'long-shore  vani- 
ties were  left  behind. 


2  An  Inland  Voyage 

The  sun  shone  brightly  ;  the  tide  was 
making — four  jolly  miles  an  hour;  the  wind 
blew  steadily,  with  occasional  squalls.  For 
my  part,  I  had  never  been  in  a  canoe  under 
sail  in  my  life ;  and  my  first  experiment 
out  in  the  middle  of  this  big  river,  was  not 
made  without  some  trepidation.  What 
would  happen  when  the  wind  first  caught 
my  little  canvas?  I  suppose  it  was  almost 
as  trying  a  venture  into  the  regions  of  the 
unknown,  as  to  publish  a  first  book,  or  to 
marry.  But  my  doubts  were  not  of  long 
duration  ;  and  in  five  minutes  you  will  not 
be  surprised  to  learn  that  I  had  tied  my 
sheet. 

I  own  I  was  a  little  struck  by  this  cir- 
cumstance myself ;  of  course,  in  company 
with  the  rest  of  my  fellow-men,  I  had 
always  tied  the  sheet  in  a  sailing-boat  ; 
but  in  so  little  and  crank  a  concern  as  a 
canoe,  and  with  these  charging  squalls,  I 
was  not  prepared  to  find  myself  follow  the 
same  principle ;  and  it  inspired  me  with 
some  contemptuous  views  of  our  regard  for 
life.  /  It  is  certainly  easier  to  smoke   with 


Antwerp  to  Boom  3 

the  sheet  fastened  ;  but  I  had  never  before 
weighed  a  comfortable  pipe  of  tobacco 
against  an  obvious  risk,  and  gravely  elected 
for  the  comfortable  pipe.  It  is  a  common- 
place, that  we  cannot  answer  for  ourselves 
before  we  have  been  tried./  But  it  is  not 
so  common  a  reflection,  and  surely  more 
consoling,  that  we  usually  find  ourselves  a 
great  deal  braver  and  better  than  we 
thought.  I  believe  this  is  every  one's  ex- 
perience :  but  an  apprehension  that  they 
may  belie  themselves  in  the  future  prevents 
mankind  from  trumpeting  this  cheerful 
sentiment  abroad.  I  wish  sincerely,  for  it 
would  have  saved  me  much  trouble,  there 
had  been  some  one  to  put  me  in  a  good 
heart  about  life  when  I  was  younger  ;  to 
tell  me  how  dangers  are  most  portentous 
on  a  distant  sight  ;  and  how  the  good  in  a 
man's  spirit  will  not  suffer  itself  to  be  over- 
laid, and  rarely  or  never  deserts  him  in  the 
hour  of  need.  But  we  are  all  for  tootling 
on  the  sentimental  flute  in  literature  ;  and 
not  a  man  among  us  will  go  to  the  head  of 
the  march  to  sound  the  heady  drums, 


4  All  Inland   Voyage 

It  was  agreeable  upon  the  river.  A  barge 
or  two  went  past  laden  with  hay.  Reeds 
and  willows  bordered  the  stream  ;  and  cat- 
tle and  gray  venerable  horses  came  and 
hung  their  mild  heads  over  the  embank- 
ment. Here  and  there  was  a  pleasant  vil- 
lage among  trees,  with  a  noisy  shipping 
yard  ;  here  and  there  a  villa  in  a  lawn.  The 
wind  served  us  well  up  the  Scheldt  and 
thereafter  up  the  Rupel ;  and  we  were  run- 
ning pretty  free  when  w^e  began  to  sight 
the  brickyards  of  Boom,  lying  for  a  long 
way  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  The 
left  bank  was  still  green  and  pastoral,  with 
alleys  of  trees  along  the  embankment,  and 
here  and  there  a  flight  of  steps  to  serve  a 
ferry,  where  perhaps  there  sat  a  woman 
with  her  elbows  on  her  knees,  or  an  old 
gentleman  with  a  staff  and  silver  spectacles. 
But  Boom  and  its  brickyards  grew  smokier 
and  shabbier  with  every  minute  ;  until  a 
great  church  with  a  clock,  and  a  wooden 
bridge  over  the  river,  indicated  the  central 
quarters  of  the  town. 

Boom   is    not  a   nice   place,  and    is   only 


Antwerp  to  Boom  5 

remarkable  for  one  thing:  that  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  have  a  private  opinion 
that  they  can  speak  EngHsh,  which  is  not 
justified  by  fact.  This  gave  a  kind  of  hazi- 
ness to  our  intercourse.  As  for  the  Hotel 
de  la  Navigation,  I  think  it  is  the  worst 
feature  of  the  place.  It  boasts  of  a  sanded 
parlour,  with  a  bar  at  one  end,  looking  on 
the  street ;  and  another  sanded  parlour, 
darker  and  colder,  with  an  empty  birdcage 
and  a  tricolour  subscription  box  by  way  of 
sole  adornment,  where  we  made  shift  to 
dine  in  the  company  of  three  uncommuni- 
cative engineer  apprentices  and  a  silent 
bagman.  The  food,  as  usual  in  Belgium, 
was  of  a  nondescript  occasional  character  ; 
indeed  I  have  never  been  able  to  detect 
anything  in  the  nature  of  a  meal  among 
this  pleasing  people ;  they  seem  to  peck 
and  trifle  with  viands  all  day  long  in  an 
amateur  spirit :  tentatively  French,  truly 
German,  and  somehow  falling  between  the 
two. 

The    empty    birdcage,    swept    and    gar- 
nished, and  with  no  trace  of  the  old  piping 


6  An  Inland  Voyage 

favourite,  save  where  two  wires  had  been 
pushed  apart  to  hold  its  lump  of  sugar, 
carried  with  it  a  sort  of  graveyard  cheer. 
The  engineer  apprentices  would  have  noth- 
ing to  say  to  us,  nor  indeed  to  the  bag- 
man ;  but  talked  low  and  sparingly  to  one 
another,  or  raked  us  in  the  gaslight  with  a 
gleam  of  spectacles.  For  though  hand- 
some lads,  they  were  all  (in  the  Scotch 
phrase)  barnacled. 

There  was  an  English  maid  in  the  hotel, 
wdio  had  been  long  enough  out  of  England 
to  pick  up  all  sorts  of  funny  foreign  idioms, 
and  all  sorts  of  curious  foreign  ways,  which 
need  not  here  be  specified.  She  spoke  to 
us  very  fluently  in  her  jargon,  asked  us 
information  as  to  the  manners  of  the  pres- 
ent day  in  England,  and  obligingly  cor- 
rected us  when  we  attempted  to  answer. 
But  as  we  were  dealing  with  a  woman, 
perhaps  our  information  was  not  so  much 
thrown  away  as  it  appeared.  The  sex  likes 
to  pick  up  knowledge  and  yet  preserve  its 
superiority.''  It  is  good  policy,  and  almost 
necessary  in  the  circumstances.     If  a  man 


Antwerp  to  Boom  7 

finds  a  woman  admire  him,  were  it  only  for 
his  acquaintance  with  geography,  he  will 
begin  at  once  to  build  upon  the  admira- 
tion. It  is  only  by  unintermittent  snub- 
bing that  the  pretty  ones  can  keep  us  in 
our  place.  Men,  as  Miss  Howe  or  Miss 
Harlowe  would  have  said,  "  are  such  en- 
croachersy  For  my  part,  I  am  body  and 
soul  with  the  women  ;  and  after  a  well-mar- 
ried couple,  there  is  nothing  so  beautiful  in 
the  world  as  the  myth  of  the  divine  hun- 
tress. It  is  no  use  for  a  man  to  take  to  the 
woods  ;  we  know  him  ;  lAfithony  tried  the 
same  thing  long  ago,  and  had  a  pitiful  time 
of  it  by  all  accounts.'  But  there  is  this 
about  some  women,  which  overtops  the 
best  gymnosophist  among  men,  that  they 
suf^ce  to  themselves,  and  can  walk  in  a 
high  and  cold  zone  without  the  counte- 
nance of  any  trousered  being.  I  declare, 
although  the  reverse  of  a  professed  ascetic, 
I  am  more  obliged  to  women  for  this  ideal 
than  I  should  be  to  the  majority  of  them, 
or  indeed  to  any  but  one,  for  a  spontaneous 
kiss.     There  is  nothing  so  encouraging  a,; 


8  An  Inland  Voyage 

the  spectacle  of  self-sufficiency.  And  when 
I  think"  of  the  slim  and  lovely  maidens, 
running  the  woods  all  night  to  the  note  of 
Dianas  horn  ;  moving  among  the  old  oaks, 
as  fancy-free  as  they  ;  things  of  the  forest 
and  the  starlight,  not  touched  by  the  com- 
motion of  man's  hot  and  turbid  life — 
although  there  are  plenty  other  ideals  that 
I  should  prefer — I  find  my  heart  beat  at 
the  thought  of  this  one.  'Tis  to  fail  in  life, 
but  to  fail  with  what  a  grace  !  That  is  not 
lost  which  is  not  regretted.  And  where — 
here  slips  out  the  male — where  would  be 
much  of  the  glory  of  inspiring  love,  if  there 
were  no  contempt  to  overcome  ? 


ON   THE   WILLEBROEK   CANAL 

IVTEXT  morning,  when  we  set  forth  on  the 
Willebroek  Canal,  the  rain  began  heavy 
and  chill.  The  water  of  the  canal  stood  at 
about  the  drinking  temperature  of  tea ;  and 
under  this  cold  aspersion,  the  surface  was 
covered  with  steam.  The  exhilaration  of 
departure,  and  the  easy  motion  of  the  boats 
under  each  stroke  of  the  paddles  supported 
us  through  this  misfortune  while  it  lasted  ; 
and  when  the  cloud  passed  and  the  sun 
came  out  again,  our  spirits  went  up  above 
the  range  of  stay-at-home  humours.  A 
good  breeze  rustled  and  shivered  in  the 
rows  of  trees  that  bordered  the  canal.  The 
leaves  flickered  in  and  out  of  the  light  in 
tumultuous  masses.  It  seemed  sailing 
weather  to  eye  and  ear ;  but  down  be- 
tween the  banks,  the  wind  reached  us  only 
in  faint  and  desultory  puffs.  There  was 
hardly  enough  to  steer  by.     Progress  was 


lo  An  Inland  Voyage 

intermittent  and  unsatisfactory.  A  jocular 
person,  of  marine  antecedents,  hailed  us 
from  the  tow-path  with  a  "  Cest  vite,  mais 
c  est  longy 

The  canal  was  busy  enough.  Every  now 
and  then  we  met  or  overtook  a  long  string 
of  boats,  with  great  green  tillers ;  high 
sterns  with  a  window  on  either  side  of  the 
rudder,  and  perhaps  a  jug  or  a  flower-pot  in 
one  of  the  windows ;  a  dingy  following  be- 
hind ;  a  woman  busied  about  the  day's 
dinner,  and  a  handful  of  children.  These 
barges  were  all  tied  one  behind  the  other 
with  tow  ropes,  to  the  number  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  ;  and  the  line  was  headed  and 
kept  in  motion  by  a  steamer  of  strange  con- 
struction.  It  had  neither  paddle-wheel  nor 
screw  ;  but  by  some  gear  not  rightly  com- 
prehensible to  the  unmechanical  mind,  it 
fetched  up  over  its  bow  a  small  bright 
chain  which  lay  along  the  bottom  of  the 
canal,  and  paying  it  out  again  over  the 
stern,  dragged  itself  forward,  link  by  link, 
with  its  whole  retinue  of  loaded  skows. 
Until  one  had  found  out   the  key  to  the   ^ 


On  the    Willcbrock  Canal        n 

enigma,  there  was  something  solemn  and 
uncomfortable  in  the  progress  of  one  of 
these  trains,  as  it  moved  gently  along  the 
water  with  nothing  to  mark  its  advance 
but  an  eddy  alongside  dying  away  into  the 
wake. 

Of  all  the  creatures  of  commercial  enter- 
prise, a  canal  barge  is  by  far  the  most  de- 
lightful to  consider.  It  may  spread  its  sails, 
and  then  you  see  it  sailing  high  above  the 
tree-tops  and  the  wind-mill,  sailing  on  the 
aqueduct,  sailing  through  the  green  corn- 
lands  :  the  most  picturesque  of  things  am- 
phibious. Or  the  horse  plods  along  at  a 
foot-pace  as  if  there  were  no  such  thing  as 
business  in  the  world  ;  and  the  man  dream- 
ing at  the  tiller  sees  the  same  spire  on  the 
horizon  all  day  long.  It  is  a  mystery  how 
things  ever  get  to  their  destination  at  this 
rate ;  and  to  see  the  barges  waiting  their 
turn  at  a  lock,  affords  a  fine  lesson  of  how 
easily  the  world  may  be  taken.  There 
should  be  many  contented  spirits  on  board, 
for  such  a  life  is  both  to  travel  and  to  stay 
at  home. 


12  All  Inland  Voyage 

The  chimney  smokes  for  dinner  as  you 
go  along  ;  the  banks  of  the  canal  slowly 
unroll  their  scenery  to  contemplative  eyes; 
the  barge  floats  by  great  forests  and  through 
great  cities  with  their  public  buildings  and 
their  lamps  at  night ;  and  for  the  bargee, 
in  his  floating  home,  "  travelling  abed,"  it  is 
merely  as  if  he  were  listening  to  another 
man's  story  or  turning  the  leaves  of  a  pict- 
ure book  in  which  he  had  no  concern.  He 
may  take  his  afternoon  w^alk  in  some  for- 
eign country  on  the  banks  of  the  canal,  and 
then  come  home  to  dinner  at  his  own  fire- 
side. 

There  is  not  enough  exercise  in  such  a 
life  for  any  high  measure  of  health  ;  but  a 
high  measure  of  health  is  only  necessary 
for  unhealthy  people.  The  slug  of  a  fel- 
low, who  is  never  ill  nor  well,  has  a  quiet 
time  of  it  in  life,  and  dies  all  the  easier. 
({\  am  sure  I  would  rather  be  a  bargee 
than  occupy  any  position  under  Heaven 
that  required  attendance  at  an  ofifice^j 
There  are  few  callings,  I  should  say,  where 
a  man  gives  up  less  of  his  liberty  in  return 


On  the    Willebroek  Canal         13 

for  regular  meals.  The  bargee  is  on  ship- 
board— he  is  master  in  his  own  ship — he 
can  land  whenever  he  will — he  can  never 
be  kept  beating  off  a  lee-shore  a  whole 
frosty  night  when  the  sheets  are  as  hard 
as  iron ;  and  so  far  as  I  can  make  out, 
time  stands  as  nearly  still  with  him  as  is 
compatible  with  the  return  of  bed-time  or 
the  dinner-hour.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  why 
a  bargee  should  ever  die. 

Half-way  between  Willebroek  and  Ville- 
vorde,  in  a  beautiful  reach  of  canal  like  a 
squire's  avenue,  we  went  ashore  to  lunch. 
There  were  two  eggs,  a  junk  of  bread,  and 
a  bottle  of  wine  on  board  the  Arethusa ; 
and  two  eggs  and  an  Etna  cooking  apparatus 
on  board  the  Cigarette,  The  master  of  the 
latter  boat  smashed  one  of  the  eggs  in  the 
course  of  disembarcation ;  but  observing 
pleasantly  that  it  might  still  be  cooked  d,  la 
papier,  he  dropped  it  into  the  Etna,  in  its 
covering  of  Flemish  newspaper.  We  landed 
in  at  blink  of  fine  weather  ;  but  we  had  not 
been  two  minutes  ashore,  before  the  wind 
freshened    into   half   a   gale,   and    the   rain 


14  yi  fi  Inhnid   Voyage 

began  to  patter  on  our  shoulders.  We  sat 
as  close  about  the  Etna  as  we  could.  The 
spirits  burned  with  great  ostentation  ;  the 
grass  caught  flame  every  minute  or  two, 
and  had  to  be  trodden  out  ;  and  before 
long,  there  were  several  burnt  fingers  of  the 
party.  But  the  solid  quantity  of  cookery 
accomplished,  was  out  of  proportion  with 
so  much  display ;  and  when  we  desisted, 
after  two  applications  of  the  fire,  the  sound 
egg  was  little  more  than  loo-warm  ;  and  as 
for  h  la  papier,  it  was  a  cold  and  sordid 
fricassee  of  printer's  ink  and  broken  egg- 
shell. We  made  shift  to  roast  the  other 
two,  by  putting  them  close  to  the  burning 
spirits  ;  and  that  with  better  success.  And 
then  we  uncorked  the  bottle  of  wine,  and 
sat  down  in  a  ditch  with  our  canoe  aprons 
over  our  knees.  It  rained  smartly.  Dis- 
comfort, when  it  is  honestly  uncomfortable 
and  makes  no  nauseous  pretensions  to  the 
contrary,  is  a  vastly  humorous  business  ;  and 
people  well  steeped  and  stupefied  in  fhe 
open  air,  are  in  a  good  vein  for  laughter. 
From   this  point   of    view,   even   egg  a   la 


On  the   Willebrock  Canal        15 

papier  offered  by  way  of  food,  may  pass 
muster  as  a  sort  of  accessory  to  the  fun. 
But  this  manner  of  jest,  although  it  may 
be  taken  in  good  part,  does  not  invite  repe- 
tition ;  and  from  that  time  forward,  the 
Etna  voyaged  Hke  a  gentleman  in  the  locker 
of  the  Cigarette. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  mention  that 
when  lunch  was  over  and  we  got  aboard 
again  and  made  sail,  the  wind  promptly 
died  away.  The  rest  of  the  journey  to 
Villevorde,  we  still  spread  our  canvas  to  the 
unfavouring  air  ;  and  with  now  and  then  a 
puff,  and  now  and  then  a  spell  of  paddling, 
drifted  along  from  lock  to  lock,  between 
the  orderly  trees. 

It  was  a  fine,  green,  fat  landscape ;  or 
rather  a  mere  green  water-lane,  going  on 
from  village  to  village.  Things  had  a 
settled  look,  as  in  places  long  lived  in. 
Crop-headed  children  spat  upon  us  from 
the  bridges  as  we  went  below,  with  a  true 
conservative  feeling.  But  even  more  con- 
servative were  the  fishermen,  intent  upon 
their  floats,  who  let  us  go  by  without  one 


1 6  An  Inland  Voyage 

glance.  They  perched  upon  sterlings  and 
buttresses  and  along  the  slope  of  the  em- 
bankment, gently  occupied.  They  were 
indifferent  like  pieces  of  dead  nature. 
They  did  not  move  any  more  than  if  they 
had  been  fishing  in  an  old  Dutch  print. 
The  leaves  fluttered,  the  water  lapped,  but 
they  continued  in  one  stay  like  so  many 
churches  established  by  law.  You  might 
have  trepanned  every  one  of  their  innocent 
heads,  and  found  no  more  than  so  much 
coiled  fishing  line  below  their  skulls.  I  do 
not  care  for  your  stalwart  fellows  in  india- 
rubber  stockings  breasting  up  mountain 
torrents  with  a  salmon  rod  ;''but  I  do  dearly 
love  the  class  of  man  who  plies  his  unfruit- 
ful art,  for  ever  and  a  day,  by  still  and  de- 
populated waters.j 

At  the  last  lock  just  beyond  Villevorde, 
there  was  a  lock  mistress  who  spoke 
French  comprehensibly,  and  told  us  we 
were  still  a  couple  of  leagues  from  Brussels. 
At  the  same  place,  the  rain  began  again. 
It  fell  in  straight,  parallel  lines  ;  and  the 
surface  of  the  canal  was  thrown  up  into  an 


On  the    Willebroek  Canal        17 

infinity  of  little  crystal  fountains.  There 
were  no  beds  to  be  had  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. Nothing  for  it  but  to  lay  the  sails 
aside  and  address  ourselves  to  steady 
paddling  in  the  rain. 

Beautiful  country  houses,  with  clocks 
and  long  lines  of  shuttered  windows,  and 
fine  old  trees  standing  in  groves  and  ave- 
nues, gave  a  rich  and  sombre  aspect  in  the 
rain  and  the  deepening  dusk  to  the  shores 
of  the  canal.  I  seem  to  have  seen  some- 
thing of  the  same  effect  in  engravings : 
opulent  landscapes,  deserted  and  overhung 
with  the  passage  of  storm.  And  through- 
out we  had  the  escort  of  a  hooded  cart, 
which  trotted  shabbily  along  the  tow-path, 
and  kept  at  an  almost  uniform  distance  in 
our  wake. 
2 


THE    ROYAL    SPORT   NAUTIQUE 

'X'HE  rain  took  off  near  Laeken.  But  the 
sun  was  already  down  ;  the  air  was 
chill  ;  and  we  had  scarcely  a  dry  stitch 
between  the  pair  of  us.  Nay,  now  we 
found  ourselves  near  the  end  of  the  AlUe 
Vcrte,  and  on  the  very  threshold  of  Brussels 
we  were  confronted  by  a  serious  difficulty. 
The  shores  were  closely  lined  by  canal 
boats  waiting  their  turn  at  the  lock.  No- 
where was  there  any  convenient  landing- 
place  ;  nowhere  so  much  as  a  stable-yard 
to  leave  the  canoes  in  for  the  night.  We 
scrambled  ashore  and  entered  an  estaminet 
where  some  sorry  fellows  were  drinking 
with  the  landlord.  The  landlord  was 
pretty  round  with  us ;  he  knew  of  no 
coach-house  or  stable-yard,  nothing  of  the 
sort ;  and  seeing  we  had  come  with  no 
mind  to  drink,  he  did  not  conceal  his  im- 
patience to  be  rid  of  us.     One  of  the  sorry 


The  Royal  Sport  Nautiqtie       19 

fellows  came  to  the  rescue.  Somewhere  in 
the  corner  of  the  basin  there  was  a  slip,  he 
informed  us,  and  something  else  besides, 
not  very  clearly  defined  by  him,  but  hope- 
fully construed  by  his  hearers. 

Sure  enough  there  was  the  slip  in  the 
corner  of  the  basin  ;  and  at  the  top  of  it 
two  nice-looking  lads  in  boating  clothes. 
The  AretJmsa  addressed  himself  to  these. 
One  of  them  said  there  would  be  no  diffi- 
culty about  a  night's  lodging  for  our  boats ; 
and  the  other,  taking  a  cigarette  from  his 
lips,  inquired  if  they  were  made  by  Searle 
&  Son.  The  name  was  quite  an  introduc- 
tion. Half-a-dozen  other  young  men  came 
out  of  the  boat-house  bearing  the  super- 
scription Royal  Sport  Nautique,  and 
joined  in  the  talk.  They  were  all  very 
polite,  voluble  and  enthusiastic  ;  and  their 
discourse  was  interlarded  with  English 
boating  terms,  and  the  names  of  English 
boat-builders  and  English  clubs.  I  do  not 
know,  to  my  shame,  any  spot  in  my  native 
land  where  I  should  have  been  so  warmly 
received  by  the   same    number    of    people. 


20 


A 71  Inland   Voyage 


We  were  English  boating-men,  and  the 
Belgian  boating-men  fell  upon  our  necks. 
I  wonder  if  French  Huguenots  were  as 
cordially  greeted  by  English  Protestants 
when  they  came  across  the  Channel  out 
of  great  tribulation.  .  But  after  all,  what 
religion  knits  people  so  closely  as  a  com- 
mon sport  ? 

The  canoes  were  carried  into  the  boat- 
house  ;  they  were  washed  down  for  us  by 
the  Club  servants,  the  sails  were  hung  out 
to  dry,  and  everything  made  as  snug  and 
tidy  as  a  picture.  And  in  the  meanwhile 
we  were  led  upstairs  by  our  new-found 
brethren,  for  so  more  than  one  of  them 
stated  the  relationship,  and  made  free  of 
their  lavatory.  This  one  lent  us  soap,  that 
one  a  towel,  a  third  and  fourth  helped  us 
to  undo  our  bags.  And  all  the  time  such 
questions,  such  assurances  of  respect  and 
sympathy  !  I  declare  I  never  knew  what 
glory  was  before. 

"  Yes,  yes,  the  Royal  Sport  Nautique  is 
the  oldest  club  in  Belgium^ 

"  We  number  two  hundred." 


Tke  Royal  Sport  NaiUique       21 

"  We  " — this  is  not  a  substantive  speech, 
but  an  abstract  of  many  speeches,  the  im- 
pression left  upon  my  mind  after  a  great 
deal  of  talk  ;  and  very  youthful,  pleasant, 
natural  and  patriotic  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
— "We  have  gained  all  races,  except  those 
where  we  were  cheated  by  the  French.'' 

"  You  must  leave  all  your  wet  things  to 
be  dried." 

"  O!  ejitre  frcres  !  In  any  boathousc  in 
Eiigla7id  \NQ  should  find  the  same."  (I  cor- 
dially hope  they  might.) 

"  En  Angleterre,  vous  employ ez  des  sliding- 
seats,  nest-ce  pas  ?  " 

"We  are  all  employed  in  commerce  dur- 
ing the  day  ;  but  in  the  evening,  voyea  vous, 
nous  sonimcs  serieux." 

These  were  the  words.  They  were  all 
employed  over  the  frivolous  mercantile 
concerns  of  Belgimn  during  the  day  ;  but 
in  the  evening  they  found  some  hours  for 
the  serious  concerns  of  life.  I  may  have  a 
wrong  idea  of  wisdom,  but  I  thinl<^that  was 
a  very  wise  remark)  People  connected 
with  literature  and  philosophy  are  busy  all 


22  An  Inland  Voyage 

their  days  in  getting  rid  of  second-hand 
notions  and  false  standards.  It  is  their 
profession,  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows, 
by  dogged  thinking,  to  recover  their  old 
fresh  view  of  life,  and  distinguish  what 
they  really  and  originally  like,  from  what 
they  have  only  learned  to  tolerate  perforce. 
And  these  Royal  Nautical  Sportsmen  had 
the  distinction  still  quite  legible  in  their 
hearts.  They  had  still  those  clean  percep- 
tions of  what  is  nice  and  nasty,  what  is 
interesting  and  what  is  dull,  which  envious 
old  gentlemen  refer  to  as  illusions.  The 
nightmare  illusion  of  middle  age,(^the  bear's 
hug  of  custom  gradually  squeezing  the  life 
out  of  a  man's  souljhad  not  yet  begun  for 
these  happy-star'd  young  Belgians.  They 
still  knew  that  the  interest  they  took  in 
their  business  was  a  trifling  affair  compared 
to  their  spontaneous,  long-suffering  affec--" 
tion  for  nautical  sports.  (^vTo  know  what 
you  prefer,  instead  of  humbly  saying  Amen 
to  what  the  world  tells  you  you  ought  to 
prefer,  is  to  have  kept  your  soul  alive,  y^ 
Such  a  man  may  be  generous  ;  he  may  be 


The  Royal  Sport  Nautique       23 

honest  in  something  more  than  the  com- 
mercial sense  ;  he  may  love  his  friends 
with  an  elective,  personal  sympathy,  and 
not  accept  them  as  an  adjunct  of  the  sta- 
tion to  which  he  has  been  called.  He 
may  be  a  man,  in  short,  acting  on  his  own 
instincts,  keeping  in  his  own  shape  that 
God  made  him  in  ;  and  not  a  mere  crank  in 
the  social  engine  house,  welded  on  princi- 
ples that  he  does  not  understand,  and  for 
purposes  that  he  does  not  care  for. 
\  { For  will  anyone  dare  to  tell  me  that 
v5  business  is  more  entertaining  than  fooling 
among  boats?/  He  must  have  never  seen 
a  boat,  or  never  seen  an  ofifice,  who  says  so. 
And  for  certain  the  one  is  a  great  deal 
better  for  the  health.  There  should  be 
nothing  so  much  a  man's  business  as  his 
amusements.  Nothing  but  money-grubbing 
can  be  put  forward  to  the  contrary  ;  no  one 
but 

Mammon,  the  least  erected  spirit  that  fell 
From  Heaven, 

durst  risk  a  word  in  answer.      It  is  but  a 


24  An  Inland  Voyage 

lying  cant  that  would  represent  the  mer- 
chant and  the  banker  as  people  disinter- 
estedly toiling  for  mankind,  and  then  most 
useful  when  they  are  most  absorbed  in 
their  transactions  ;  for  the  man  is  more  im- 
portant than  his  services.  And  when  my 
Royal  Nautical  Sportsman  shall  have  so  far 
fallen  from  his  hopeful  youth  that  he  can- 
not pluck  up  an  enthusiasm  over  anything 
but  his  ledger,  I  venture  to  doubt  whether 
he  will  be  near  so  nice  a  fellow,  and 
whether  he  would  welcome,  with  so  good 
a  grace,  a  couple  of  drenched  Englishmen 
paddling  into  Brussels  in  the  dusk. 

When  we  had  changed  our  wet  clothes 
and  drunk  a  glass  of  pale  ale  to  the  Club's 
prosperity,  one  of  their  number  escorted  us 
to  an  hotel.  He  would  not  join  us  at  our 
dinner,  but  he  had  no  objection  to  a  glass 
of  wine.  Enthusiasm  is  very  wearing  ;  and 
I  begin  to  understand  why  prophets  were 
unpopular  in  Judcza,  w^iere  they  were  best 
known.  For  three  stricken  hours  did  this 
excellent  young  man  sit  beside  us  to  dilate 
on  boats  and  boat-races ;  and  before  he  left, 


The  Royal  Sport  Nautiqtie       25 

he  was  kind  enough  to  order  our  bed-room 
candles. 

We  endeavoured  now  and  again  to 
change  the  subject  ;  but  the  diversion  did 
not  last  a  moment :  the  Royal  Nautical 
Sportsman  bridled,  shied,  answered  the 
question,  and  then  breasted  once  more  into 
the  swelling  tide  of  his  subject.  I  call  it 
his  subject  ;  but  I  think  it  was  he  who  was 
subjected.  The  Arethusa,  who  holds  all 
racing  as  a  creature  of  the  devil,  found  him- 
self in  a  pitiful  dilemma.  He  durst  not 
own  his  ignorance  for  the  honour  of  Old 
England,  and  spoke  away  about  English 
clubs  and  English  oarsmen  whose  fame  had 
never  before  come  to  his  ears.  Several 
times,  and,  once  above  all,  on  the  question 
of  sliding-seats,  he  was  within  an  ace  of 
exposure.  As  for  the  Cigarette,  who  has 
rowed  races  in  the  heat  of  his  blood,  but 
now  disowns  these  slips  of  his  wanton 
youth,  his  case  was  still  more  desperate  ; 
for  the  Royal  Nautical  proposed  that  he 
should  take  an  oar  in  one  of  their  eights  on 
the  morrow,  to  compare  the  English  with 


26  An  Inland  Voyage 

the  Belgian  stroke.  I  could  see  my  friend 
perspiring  in  his  chair  whenever  that  par- 
ticular topic  came  up.  And  there  was  yet 
another  proposal  which  had  the  same  effect 
on  both  of  us.  It  appeared  that  the  cham- 
pion canoeist  of  Europe  (as  well  as  most 
other  champions)  was  a  Royal  Nautical 
Sportsman.  And  if  we  would  only  wait  un- 
til the  Sunday,  this  infernal  paddler  would 
be  so  condescending  as  to  accompany  us 
on  our  next  stage.  Neither  of  us  had  the 
least  desire  to  drive  the  coursers  of  the  sun 
against  Apollo. 

When  the  young  man  was  gone,  we 
countermanded  our  candles,  and  ordered 
some  brandy  and  water.  The  great  billows 
had  gone  over  our  head.  The  Royal  Nauti- 
cal Sportsmen  were  as  nice  young  fellows 
as  a  man  would  wish  to  see,  but  they  were 
a  trifle  too  young  and  a  thought  too  nauti- 
cal for  us.  We  began  to  see  that  we  were 
old  and  cynical  ;  we  liked  ease  and  the 
agreeable  rambling  of  the  human  mind 
about  this  and  the  other  subject  ;  we  did 
not  want  to   disgrace  our  native   land  by 


The  Royal  Sport  Natitiqtie       27 

messing  an  eight,  or  toiling  pitifully  in  the 
wake  of  the  champion  canoeist.  In  short, 
we  had  recourse  to  flight.  It  seemed  un- 
grateful, but  we  tried  to  make  that  good  on 
a  card  loaded  with  sincere  compliments. 
And  indeed  it  was  no  time  for  scruples ; 
we  seemed  to  feel  the  hot  breath  of  the 
champion  on  our  necks. 


AT   MAUBEUGE 

pARTLY  from  the  terror  we  had  of  our 
good  friends  the  Royal  Nauticals, 
partly  from  the  fact  that  there  were  no 
fewer  than  fifty-five  locks  between  Brjissels 
and  Charleroi,  we  concluded  that  we  should 
travel  by  train  across  the  frontier,  boats 
and  all.  Fifty-five  locks  in  a  day's  journey, 
was  pretty  well  tantamount  to  trudging  the 
whole  distance  on  foot,  with  the  canoes 
upon  our  shoulders,  an  object  of  astonish- 
ment to  the  trees  on  the  canal  side,  and 
of  honest  derision  to  all  right-thinking 
children. 

To  pass  the  frontier,  even  in  a  train,  is 
a  difificult  matter  for  the  Arethusa.  He  is 
somehow  or  other,  a  marked  man  for  the 
©facial  eye.  Wherever  he  journeys,  there 
are  the  of^cers  gathered  together.  Treaties 
are  solemnly  signed,  foreign  ministers,  am- 
bassadors, and  consuls  sit  throned  in  state 


At  Maubeuge  29 

from  China  to  Peru,  and  the  Union  Jack 
flutters  on  all  the  winds  of  heaven.  Under 
these  safeguards,  portly  clergymen,  school- 
mistresses, gentlemen  in  gray  tweed  suits, 
and  all  the  ruck  and  rabble  of  British  tour- 
istry  pour  unhindered,  Murray  in  hand, 
over  the  railways  of  the  continent,  and  yet 
the  slim  person  of  the  Arethusa  is  taken  in 
the  meshes,  while  these  great  fish  go  on 
their  way  rejoicing.  If  he  travels  without 
a  passport,  he  is  cast,  without  any  figure 
about  the  matter,  into  noisome  dungeons: 
if  his  papers  are  in  order,  he  is  suffered  to 
go  his  way  indeed,  but  not  until  he  has 
been  humiliated  by  a  general  incredulity. 
He  is  a  born  British  subject,  yet  he  has 
never  succeeded  in  persuading  a  single  offi- 
cial of  his  nationality.  He  flatters  himself 
he  is  indifferent  honest ;  yet  he  is  rarely 
taken  for  anything  better  than  a  spy,  and 
there  is  no  absurd  and  disreputable  means 
of  livelihood,  but  has  been  attributed  to 
him  in  some  heat  of  official  or  popular 
distrust.    .    .    . 

For  the  life   of  me  I  cannot  understand 


30  All  hiland  Voyage 

it.  I  too  have  been  knolled  to  church,  and 
sat  at  good  men's  feasts  ;  but  I  bear  no 
mark  of  it.  I  am  as  strange  as  a  Jack 
Indian  to  their  official  spectacles.  I  might 
come  from  any  part  of  the  globe,  it  seems, 
except  from  where  I  do.  My  ancestors 
have  laboured  in  vain,  and  the  glorious 
Constitution  cannot  protect  me  in  my 
walks  abroad.  It  is  a  great  thing,  believe 
me,  to  present  a  good  normal  type  of  the 
nation  you  belong  to. 

Nobody  else  was  asked  for  his  papers 
on  the  way  to  Maubeiige ;  but  I  was  ;  and 
although  I  clung  to  my  rights,  I  had  to 
choose  at  last  between  accepting  the 
humiliation  and  being  left  behind  by  the 
train.  I  was  sorry  to  give  way ;  but  I 
wanted  to  get  to  Maiibeuge. 

Maiibeiige  is  a  fortified  town,  with  a  very 
good  inn,  the  Grand  Cerf.  It  seemed  to 
be  inhabited  principally  by  soldiers  and 
bagmen  ;  at  least,  these  were  all  that  we 
saw,  except  the  hotel  servants.  We  had  to 
stay  there  some  time,  for  the  canoes  were 
in  no  hurry  to  follow  us,  and  at  last  stuck 


At  Maubetige  31 

hopelessly  in  the  custom-house  until  we 
went  back  to  liberate  them.  There  was 
nothing  to  do,  nothing  to  see.  We  had 
good  meals,  which  was  a  great  matter ; 
but  that  was  all. 

The  Cigarette  was  nearly  taken  up  upon 
a  charge  of  drawing  the  fortifications  :  a 
feat  of  which  he  was  hopelessly  incapable. 
And  besides,  as  I  suppose  each  belligerent 
nation  has  a  plan  of  the  other's  fortified 
places  already,  these  precautions  are  of  the 
nature  of  shutting  the  stable  door  after  the 
steed  is  away.  But  I  have  no  doubt  they 
help  to  keep  up  a  good  spirit  at  home.  It 
is  a  great  thing  if  you  can  persuade  people 
that  they  are  somehow  or  other  partakers 
in  a  mystery.  It  makes  them  feel  bigger. 
Even  the  Freemasons,  who  have  been 
shown  up  to  satiety,  preserve  a  kind  of 
pride  ;  and  not  a  grocer  among  them,  how- 
ever honest,  harmless  and  empty-headed 
he  may  feel  himself  to  be  at  bottom,  but 
comes  home  from  one  of  their  ccenacula 
with  a  portentous  significance  for  himself. 
I  It    is    an    odd   thing,    how   happily   two 


32  An  Inland  Voyage 

people,  if  there  are  two,  can  live  in  a  place 
where  they  have  no  acquaintance^  I  think 
the  spectacle  of  a  whole  life  in  which  you 
have  no  part,  paralyses  personal  desire. 
You  are  content  to  become  a  mere  spec- 
tator. The  baker  stands  in  his  door  ;  the 
colonel  with  his  three  medals  goes  by  to 
the  cafe  at  night  ;  the  troops  drum  and 
trumpet  and  man  the  ramparts,  as  bold  as 
so  many  lions.  It  would  task  language  to 
say  how  placidly  you  behold  all  this.  In  a 
place  where  you  have  taken  some  root,  you 
are  provoked  out  of  your  indifference  ;  you 
have  a  hand  in  the  game  ;  your  friends  are 
fighting  with  the  army.  But  in  a  strange 
town,  not  small  enough  to  grow  too  soon 
familiar,  nor  so  large  as  to  have  laid  itself 
out  for  travellers,  you  stand  so  far  apart 
from  the  business,  that  you  positively  for- 
get it  would  be  possible  to  go  nearer  ;  you 
have  so  little  human  interest  around  you, 
that  you  do  not  remember  yourself  to  be  a 
man.  Perhaps,  in  a  very  short  time,  you 
would  be  one  no  longer.  Gymnosophists 
go  into  a  wood,  with  all  nature  seething 


At  Manbeuge  33 

around  them,  with  romance  on  every  side  ; 
it  would  be  much  more  to  the  purpose,  if 
they  took  up  their  abode  in  a  dull  country 
town,  where  they  should  see  just  so  much 
of  humanity  as  to  keep  them  from  desiring 
more,  and  only  the  stale  externals  of  man's 
life.  These  externals  are  as  dead  to  us  as 
so  many  formalities,  and  speak  a  dead 
language  in  our  eyes  and  ears.  They  have 
no  more  meaning  than  an  oath  or  a  saluta- 
tion. We  are  so  much  accustomed  to  see 
married  couples  going  to  church  of  a  Sun- 
day that  we  have  clean  forgotten  what  they 
represent  ;  and  novelists  are  driven  to  re- 
habilitate adultery,  no  less,  when  they  wish 
to  show  us  what  a  beautiful  thing  it  is  for 
a  man  and  a  woman  to  live  for  each  other. 
One  person  in  Maubeiige,  however,  showed 
me  something  more  than  his  outside.  That 
was  the  driver  of  the  hotel  omnibus  :  a 
mean-enough  looking  little  man,  as  well  as 
I  can  remember ;  but  with  a  spark  of  some- 
thing human  in  his  soul.  He  had  heard  of 
our  little  journey,  and  came  to  me  at  once 
in  envious  sympathy.  How  he  longed  to 
3 


34  An  Inland  Voyage 

travel !  he  told  me.  How  he  longed  to  be 
somewhere  else,  and  see  the  round  world 
before  he  went  into  the  grave!  "Here  I 
am,"  said  he.  "  I  drive  to  the  station. 
Well.  And  then  I  drive  back  again  to  the 
hotel.  And  so  on  every  day  and  all  the 
week  round.  My  God,  is  that  life?"  I 
could  not  say  I  thought  it  was — for  him. 
He  pressed  me  to  tell  him  where  I  had 
been,  and  where  I  hoped  to  go  ;  and  as  he 
listened,  I  declare  the  fellow  sighed.  Might 
not  this  have  been  a  brave  African  travel- 
ler, or  gone  to  the  Indies  after  Drake  ? 
But  it  is  an  evil  age  for  the  gipsily  inclined 
among  men.^  He  who  can  sit  squarest  on 
a  three-legged  stool,  he  it  is  who  has  the 
wealth  and  glory. 

I  wonder  if  my  friend  is  still  driving  the 
omnibus  for  the  Grand  Cerf  ?  Not  very 
likely,  I  believe  ;  for  I  think  he  was  on  the 
eve  of  mutiny  when  we  j^assed  through, 
and  perhaps  our  passage  determined  him 
for  good.  Better  a  thousand  times  that 
he  should  be  a  tramp,  and  mend  pots  and 
pans  by  the  wayside,  and  sleep  under  trees, 


At  Maubeuge  35 

and  see  the  dawn  and  the  sunset  every  day 
above  a  new  horizon.  I  think  I  hear  you 
say  that  it  is  a  respectable  position  to  drive 
an  omnibus?  Very  well.  What  right  has 
he  who  likes  it  not,  to  keep  those  who 
would  like  it  dearly  out  of  this  respectable 
position?  Suppose  a  dish  were  not  to  my 
taste,  and  you  told  me  that  it  was  a  favour- 
ite among  the  rest  of  the  company,  what 
should  I  conclude  from  that  ?  Not  to  fin- 
ish the  dish  against  my  stomach,  I  suppose, 
f  Respectability  is  a  very  good  thing  in  its 
way,  but  it  does  not  rise  superior  to  all 
considerations./"  I  would  not  for  a  moment 
venture  to  hint  that  it  was  a  matter  of 
taste;  but  I  think  1  will  go  as  far  as  this  : 
/^that  if  a  position  is  admittedly  unkind, 
uncomfortable,  unnecessary,  and  superflu- 
ously useless,  although  it  were  as  respect- 
able as  the  Church  of  England,  the  sooner 
a  man  is  out  of  it,  the  better  for  himself, 
and  all  concerned.  J 


ON   THE  SAMBRE   CANALISED 
TO  QUARTES 

A  BOUT  three  in  the  afternoon  the  whole 
establishment  of  the  Grand  Cerf  ac- 
companied us  to  the  water's  edge.  The 
man  of  the  omnibus  was  there  with  hag- 
gard eyes.  Poor  cagebird !  Do  I  not  re- 
member the  time  when  I  myself  haunted 
the  station,  to  watch  train  after  train  carry 
its  complement  of  freemen  into  the  night, 
and  read  the  names  of  distant  places  on 
the  time-bills  with  indescribable  longings? 
We  were  not  clear  of  the  fortifications 
before  the  rain  began.  The  wind  was  con- 
trary, and  blew  in  furious  gusts ;  nor  were 
the  aspects  of  nature  any  more  clement 
than  the  doings  of  the  sky.  For  we  passed 
through  a  stretch  of  blighted  country, 
sparsely  covered  with  brush,  but  hand- 
somely   enough    diversified    with    factory 


On  the  Sambre  Canalised        37 

chimneys.  We  landed  in  a  soiled  meadow 
among  some  pollards,  and  there  smoked 
a  pipe  in  a  flaw  of  fair  weather.  But  the 
wind  blew  so  hard,  we  could  get  little  else 
to  smoke.  There  were  no  natural  objects 
in  the  neighbourhood,  but  some  sordid 
workshops.  A  group  of  children  headed 
by  a  tall  girl  stood  and  watched  us  from  a 
little  distance  all  the  time  we  stayed.  I 
heartily  wonder  what  they  thought  of  us. 
At  Hautmont,  the  lock  was  almost  im- 
passable ;  the  landing  place  being  steep  and 
high,  and  the  launch  at  a  long  distance. 
Near  a  dozen  grimy  workmen  lent  us  a 
hand.  They  refused  any  reward ;  and, 
what  is  much  better,  refused  it  handsomely, 
without  conveying  any  sense  of  insult. 
"  It  is  a  way  we  have  in  our  countryside," 
said  they.  And  a  very  becoming  way  it  is. 
In  Scotland,  where  also  you  will  get  ser- 
vices for  nothing,  the  good  people  reject 
your  money  as  if  you  had  been  trying  to 
corrupt  a  voter.  When  people  take  the 
trouble  to  do  dignified  acts,  it  is  worth 
while  to  take  a  little   more,  and   allow  the 


38  An  Inland  Voyage 

dignity  to  be  common  to  all  concerned. 
But  in  our  brave  Saxon  countries,  where 
we  plod  three  score  years  and  ten  in  the 
mud,  and  the  wind  keeps  singing  in  our 
ears  from  birth  to  burial,  we  do  our  good 
and  bad  with  a  high  hand  and  almost  offen- 
sively ;  and  make  even  our  alms  a  witness- 
bearing  and  an  act  of  war  against  the 
wrong. 

After  Haiituioit,  the  sun  came  forth 
again  and  the  wind  went  down  ;  and  a  little 
paddling  took  us  beyond  the  iron-works 
and  through  a  delectable  land.  The  river 
wound  among  low  hills,  so  that  sometimes 
the  sun  was  at  our  backs,  and  sometimes  it 
stood  right  ahead,  and  the  river  before  us 
was  one  sheet  of  intolerable  glory.  On 
either  hand,  meadows  and  orchards  bor- 
dered, with  a  margin  of  sedge  and  water 
flowers,  upon  the  river.  The  hedges  were 
of  great  height,  woven  about  the  trunks  of 
hedgerow  elms  ;  and  the  fields,  as  they  were 
often  very  small,  looked  like  a  series  of 
bowers  along  the  stream.  There  was  never 
any  prospect ;  sometimes  a  hill-top  with  its 


On  the  Sambre  Canalised        39 

trees  would  look  over  the  nearest  hedge- 
row, just  to  make  a  middle  distance  for  the 
sky  ;  but  that  was  all.  The  heaven  was 
bare  of  clouds.  The  atmosphere,  after  the 
rain,  was  of  enchanting  purity.  The  river 
doubled  among  the  hillocks,  a  shining  strip 
of  mirror  glass  ;  and  the  dip  of  the  paddles 
set  the  flowers  shaking  along  the  brink. 

In  the  meadows  wandered  black  and 
white  cattle  fantastically  marked.  One 
beast,  with  a  white  head  and  the  rest  of 
the  body  glossy  black,  came  to  the  edge  to 
drink,  and  stood  gravely  twitching  his  ears 
at  me  as  I  went  by,  like  some  sort  of  pre- 
posterous clergyman  in  a  play.  A  moment 
after  I  heard  a  loud  plunge,  and,  turning 
my  head,  saw  the  clergyman  struggling  to 
shore.  The  bank  had  given  way  under  his 
feet. 

Besides  the  cattle,  we  saw  no  living 
things  except  a  few  birds  and  a  great  many 
fishermen.  These  sat  along  the  edges  of  the 
meadows,  sometimes  with  one  rod,  some- 
times with  as  many  as  half  a  score.  They 
seemed  stupefied   with  contentment  ;   and 


40  All  Inland   Voyage 

when  we  induced  them  to  exchange  a  few 
words  with  us  about  the  weather,  their 
voices  sounded  quiet  and  far-away.  There 
was  a  strange  diversity  of  opinion  among 
them  as  to  the  kind  of  fish  for  which  they 
set  their  lures ;  although  they  were  all 
agreed  in  this,  that  the  river  was  abun- 
dantly supplied.  Where  it  was  plain  that 
no  two  of  them  had  ever  caught  the  same 
kind  of  fish,  we  could  not  help  suspecting 
that  perhaps  not  any  one  of  them  had  ever 
caught  a  fish  at  all.  I  hope,  since  the 
afternoon  was  so  lovely,  that  they  were  one 
and  all  rewarded  ;  and  that  a  silver  booty 
went  home  in  every  basket  for  the  pot. 
Some  of  my  friends  would  cry  shame  on 
me  for  this ;  but  I  prefer  a  man,  were  he 
only  an  angler,  to  the  bravest  pair  of  gills 
in  all  God's  waters.  I  do  not  affect  fishes 
unless  when  cooked  in  sauce  ;  whereas  an 
angler  is  an  important  piece  of  river  scen- 
ery, and  hence  deserves  some  recognition 
among  canoeists.  He  can  always  tell  you 
where  you  are  after  a  mild  fashion  ;  and  his 
quiet  presence  serves  to  accentuate  the  soli- 


On  the  Sambre  Canalised        4^ 

tude  and  stillness,  and  remind  you  of  the 
glittering  citizens  below  your  boat. 

The  Sambre  turned  so  industriously  to 
and  fro  among  his  little  hills,  that  it  was 
past  six  before  we  drew  near  the  lock  at 
Quartes.  There  were  some  children  on  the 
tow-path,  with  whom  the  Cigarette  fell  into 
a  chaffing  talk  as  they  ran  along  beside 
us.  It  was  in  vain  that  I  warned  him.  In 
vain  I  told  him,  in  English,  that  boys  were 
the  most  dangerous  creatures  ;  and  if  once 
you  began  with  them,  it  was  safe  to  end 
in  a  shower  of  stones.  For  my  own  part, 
whenever  anything  was  addressed  to  me, 
I  smiled  gently  and  shook  my  head  as 
though  I  were  an  inoffensive  person  inade- 
quately acquainted  with  French.  For  in- 
deed I  have  had  such  experience  at  home, 
that  I  would  sooner  meet  many  wild  ani- 
mals than  a  troop  of  healthy  urchins. 

But  I  was  doing  injustice  to  these  peace- 
able young  Hainaulters.  When  the  Cigar- 
ette went  off  to  make  inquiries,  I  got  out 
upon  the  bank  to  smoke  a  pipe  and  super- 
intend the  boats,  and  became  at  once  the 


42  An  Inland  Voyage 

centre  of  much  amiable  curiosity.  The 
children  had  been  joined  by  this  time  by 
a  young  woman  and  a  mild  lad  who  had 
lost  an  arm  ;  and  this  gave  me  more  secur- 
ity. When  I  let  slip  my  first  word  or  so 
in  French,  a  little  girl  nodded  her  head 
with  a  comical  grown-up  air.  "  Ah,  you 
see,"  she  said,  "he  understands  well  enough 
now  ;  he  was  just  making  believe."  And 
the  little  group  laughed  together  very  good 
naturedly. 

They  were  much  impressed  when  they 
heard  we  came  from  England ;  and  the 
little  girl  proffered  the  information  that 
England  was  an  island  "  and  a  far  way 
from  here — bien  loin  d'ici." 

"Ay,  you  may  say  that,  a  far  way  from 
here,"  said  the  lad  with  one  arm. 

I  was  as  nearly  home-sick  as  ever  I  was 
in  my  life ;  they  seemed  to  make  it  such 
an  incalculable  distance  to  the  place  where 
I  first  saw  the  day. 

They  admired  the  canoes  very  much. 
And  I  observed  one  piece  of  delicacy  in 
these  children,  which  is  worthy  of  record. 


On  tJic  Sambrc   Canalised        43 

They  had  been  deafening  us  for  the  last 
hundred  yards  with  petitions  for  a  sail  ; 
ay,  and  they  deafened  us  to  the  same  tune 
next  morning  when  we  came  to  start ;  but 
then,  when  the  canoes  were  lying  empty, 
there  was  no  word  of  any  such  petition. 
Delicacy?  or  perhaps  a  bit  of  fear  for  the 
water  in  so  crank  a  vessel  ?  I  hate  cyni- 
cism a  great  deal  worse  than  I  do  the  devil ; 
unless  perhaps  the  two  were  the  same 
thing?  And  yet  'tis  a  good  tonic;  the 
cold  tub  and  bath-towel  of  the  sentiments ; 
and  positively  necessary  to  life  in  cases  of 
advanced  sensibility. 

From  the  boats  they  turned  to  my  cos- 
tume. They  could  not  make  enough  of 
my  red  sash  ;  and  my  knife  filled  them  with 
awe. 

"  They  make  them  like  that  in  England^' 
said  the  boy  with  one  arm.  I  was  glad 
he  did  not  know  how  badly  we  make  them 
in  England  now-a-days.  "  They  are  for 
people  who  go  away  to  sea,"  he  added, 
"  and  to  defend  one's  life  against  great 
f^sh." 


44  An  Inland  Voyage 

I  felt  I  was  becoming  a  more  and  more 
romantic  figure  to  the  little  group  at  every 
word.  And  so  I  suppose  I  was.  Even  my 
pipe,  although  it  was  an  ordinary  French 
clay,  pretty  well  "  trousered,"  as  they  call 
it,  would  have  a  rarity  in  their  eyes,  as  a 
thing  coming  from  so  far  away.  And  if 
my  feathers  were  not  very  fine  in  them- 
selves, they  were  all  from  over  seas.  One 
thing  in  my  outfit,  however,  tickled  them 
out  of  all  politeness  ;  and  that  was  the 
bemired  condition  of  my  canvas  shoes.  I 
suppose  they  were  sure  the  mud  at  any 
rate  was  a  home  product.  The  little  girl 
(who  was  the  genius  of  the  party)  displayed 
her  own  sabots  in  competition  ;  and  I  wish 
you  could  have  seen  how  gracefully  and 
merrily  she  did   it. 

The  young  woman's  milk  can,  a  great 
amphora  of  hammered  brass,  stood  some 
way  off  upon  the  sward.  I  was  glad  of  an 
opportunity  to  divert  public  attention  from 
myself,  and  return  some  of  the  compli- 
ments I  had  received.  So  I  admired  it 
cordially  both  for  form  and  colour,  telling 


071  the  Sa77tbre  Canalised        45 

them,  and  very  truly,  that  it  was  as  beauti- 
ful as  gold.  They  were  not  surprised.  The 
things  were  plainly  the  boast  of  the  country- 
side. And  the  children  expatiated  on  the 
costliness  of  the  amphorce,  which  sell  some- 
times as  high  as  thirty  francs  apiece  ;  told 
me  how  they  were  carried  on  donkeys,  one 
on  either  side  of  the  saddle,  a  brave  capari- 
son in  themselves  ;  and  how  they  were  to 
be  seen  all  over  the  district,  and  at  the 
larger  farms  in  great  number  and  of  great 
size. 


PONT-SUR-SAMBRE 
WE   ARE   PEDLARS 

T^HE  Cigarette  returned  with  good  news. 
There  were  beds  to  be  had  some  ten 
minutes'  walk  from  where  we  were,  at  a 
place  called  Pont.  We  stowed  the  canoes 
in  a  granary,  and  asked  among  the  children 
for  a  guide.  The  circle  at  once  widened 
round  us,  and  our  offers  of  reward  were 
received  in  dispiriting  silence.  We  were 
plainly  a  pair  of  Bluebeards  to  the  children  ; 
they  might  speak  to  us  in  public  places, 
and  where  they  had  the  advantage  of  num- 
bers;  but  it  was  another  thing  to  venture 
off  alone  with  two  uncouth  and  legendary 
characters,  who  had  dropped  from  the 
clouds  upon  their  hamlet  this  quiet  after- 
noon, sashed  and  beknived,  and  with  a 
flavour  of  great  voyages.  The  owner  of 
the  granary  came  to  our  assistance,  singled 


Pont-SMr-Sambre  47 

out  one  little  fellow  and  threatened  him 
with  corporalities  ;  or  I  suspect  we  should 
have  had  to  find  the  way  for  ourselves. 
As  it  was,  he  was  more  frightened  at  the 
granary  man  than  the  strangers,  having 
perhaps  had  some  experience  of  the  for- 
mer. But  I  fancy  his  little  heart  must 
have  been  going  at  a  fine  rate  ;  for  he  kept 
trotting  at  a  respectful  distance  in  front, 
and  looking  back  at  us  with  scared  eyes. 
Not  otherwise  may  the  children  of  the 
young  world  have  guided  Jove  or  one  of 
his  Olympian  compeers  on  an  adventure. 

A  miry  lane  led  us  up  from  Quartes  with 
its  church  and  bickering  windmill.  The 
hinds  were  trudging  homewards  from  the 
fields.  A  brisk  little  old  woman  passed  us 
by.  She  was  seated  across  a  donkey  be- 
tween a  pair  of  glittering  milk  cans  ;  and, 
as  she  went,  she  kicked  jauntily  with  her 
heels  upon  the  donkey's  side,  and  scattered 
shrill  remarks  among  the  wayfarers.  It 
was  notable  that  none  of  the  tired  men 
took  the  trouble  to  reply.  Our  conductor 
soon    led    us   out    of  the    lane  and    across 


48  An  hilajid  Voyage 

country.  The  sun  had  gone  down,  but  the 
west  in  front  of  us  was  one  lake  of  level 
gold.  The  path  wandered  a  while  in  the 
open,  and  then  passed  under  a  trellis  like  a 
bower  indefinitely  prolonged.  On  either 
hand  were  shadowy  orchards  ;  cottages  lay 
low  among  the  leaves  and  sent  their  smoke 
to  heaven ;  every  here  and  there,  in  an 
opening,  appeared  the  great  gold  face  of 
the  west. 

I  never  saw  the  Cigarette  in  such  an 
idyllic  frame  of  mind.  He  waxed  posi- 
tively lyrical  in  praise  of  country  scenes. 
I  was  little  less  exhilarated  myself ;  the 
mild  air  of  the  evening,  the  shadows,  the 
rich  lights  and  the  silence,  made  a  sym- 
phonious  accompaniment  about  our  walk ; 
and  we  both  determined  to  avoid  towns 
for  the  future  and  sleep  in  hamlets. 

At  last  the  path  went  between  two 
houses,  and  turned  the  party  out  into  a 
wide  muddy  high-road,  bordered,  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  reach  on  either  hand,  by  an 
unsightly  village.  The  houses  stood  well 
back,  leaving  a  ribbon  of   waste   land    on 


Pont-stir-Sainbre  49 

either  side  of  the  road,  where  there  were 
stacks  of  firewood,  carts,  barrows,  rubbish 
heaps,  and  a  Httle  doubtful  grass.  Away 
on  the  left,  a  gaunt  tower  stood  in  the 
middle  of  the  street.  What  it  had  been 
in  past  ages,  I  know  not :  probably  a  hold 
in  time  of  war;  but  now-a-days  it  bore  an 
illegible  dial-plate  in  its  upper  parts,  and 
near  the  bottom  an  iron  letter-box. 

The  inn  to  which  we  had  been  recom- 
mended at  Quartes  was  full,  or  else  the 
landlady  did  not  like  our  looks.  I  ought 
to  say,  that  with  our  long,  damp  india-rub- 
ber bags,  we  presented  rather  a  doubtful 
type  of  civilisation  :  like  rag  and  bone  men, 
the  Cigarette  imagined.  "  These  gentle- 
men are  pedlars?" — Ces  messieurs  sont  des 
marchands  ? — asked  the  landlady.  And 
then,  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  which 
I  suppose  she  thought  superfluous  in  so 
plain  a  case,  recommended  us  to  a  butcher 
who  lived  hard  by  the  tower  and  took  in 
travellers  to  lodge. 

Thither  went  w^e.  But  the  butcher  was 
flitting,  and  all  his  beds  were  taken  down. 
4 


50  An  hiland  Voyage 

Or  else  he  didn't  like  our  look.  As  a  part- 
ing shot,  we  had  "  These  gentlemen  are 
pedlars  ?" 

It  began  to  grow  dark  in  earnest.  We 
could  no  longer  distinguish  the  faces  of  the 
people  who  passed  us  by  with  an  inarticu- 
late good  evening.  And  the  householders 
of  Pont  seemed  very  economical  with  their 
oil ;  for  we  saw  not  a  single  window  lighted 
in  all  that  long  village.  I  believe  it  is  the 
longest  village  in  the  world  ;  but  I  daresay 
in  our  predicament  every  pace  counted 
three  times  over.  We  were  much  cast 
down  when  we  came  to  the  last  auberge ; 
and  looking  in  at  the  dark  door,  asked  tim- 
idly if  we  could  sleep  there  for  the  night. 
A  female  voice  assented  in  no  very  friendly 
tones.  We  clapped  the  bags  down  and 
found  our  way  to  chairs. 

The  place  was  in  total  darkness,  save  a 
red  glow  in  the  chinks  and  ventilators  of 
the  stove.  But  now  the  landlady  lit  a 
lamp  to  see  her  new  guests  ;  I  suppose  the 
darkness  was  what  saved  us  another  expul- 
sion ;  for  I  cannot  say  she  looked  gratified 


Pont-sur-Sambre  5 ' 

at  our  appearance.  We  were  in  a  large 
bare  apartment,  adorned  with  two  allegori- 
cal prints  of  Music  and  Painting,  and  a 
copy  of  the  Law  against  Public  Drunken- 
ness. On  one  side,  there  was  a  bit  of  a 
bar,  with  some  half-a-dozen  bottles.  Two 
labourers  sat  waiting  supper,  in  attitudes 
of  extreme  weariness  ;  a  plain-looking  lass 
bustled  about  with  a  sleepy  child  of  two  ; 
and  the  landlady  began  to  derange  the  pots 
upon  the  stove  and  set  some  beef-steak  to 
grill. 

"  These  gentlemen  are  pedlars  ? "  she 
asked  sharply.  And  that  was  all  the  con- 
versation forthcoming.  We  began  to  think 
we  might  be  pedlars  after  all.  I  never 
knew  a  population  \\\\\\  so  narrow  a  range 
of  conjecture  as  the  inn-keepers  of  Pont-sur- 
Sambre.  But  manners  and  bearing  have 
not  a  wider  currency  than  bank-notes. 
You  have  only  to  get  far  enough  out  of 
your  beat,  and  all  your  accomplished  airs 
will  go  for  nothing.  These  Hainaulters 
could  see  no  difference  between  us  and 
the  average  pedlar.     Indeed  we  had  some 


52  An  Inland  Voyage 

grounds  for  reflection  while  the  steak  was 
getting  ready,  to  see  how  perfectly  they 
accepted  us  at  their  own  valuation,  and 
how  our  best  politeness  and  best  efforts  at 
enterf^inment  seemed  to  fit  quite  suitably 
with  the  character  of  packmen.  At  least 
it  seemed  a  good  account  of  the  profession 
in  France,  that  even  before  such  judges,  we 
could  not  beat  them  at  our  own  weapons. 

At  last  we  were  called  to  table.  The 
two  hinds  (and  one  of  them  looked  sadly 
worn  and  white  in  the  face,  as  though  sick 
with  over  work  and  under  feeding)  supped 
off  a  single  plate  of  some  sort  of  bread- 
berry,  some  potatoes  in  their  jackets,  a 
small  cup  of  coffee  sweetened  with  sugar 
candy,  and  one  tumbler  of  swipes.  The 
landlady,  her  son,  and  the  lass  aforesaid, 
took  the  same.  Our  meal  was  quite  a 
banquet  by  comparison.  We  had  some 
beef-steak,  not  so  tender  as  it  might  have 
been,  some  of  the  potatoes,  some  cheese, 
an  extra  glass  of  the  swipes,  and  white 
sugar  in  our  coffee. 

You  see  what  it  is  to  be  a  gentleman — I 


Pont-sur-Sambre  5  3 

beg  your  pardon,  what  it  is  to  be  a  pedlar. 
It  had  not  before  occurred  to  me  that  a 
pedlar  was  a  great  man  in  a  labourer's  ale- 
house ;  but  now  that  I  had  to  enact  the 
part  for  an  evening,  I  found  that  so  it  was. 
He  has  in  his  hedge  quarters,  somewhat 
the  same  pre-eminency  as  the  man  who 
takes  a  private  parlour  in  a  hotel.  The 
more  you  look  into  it,  the  more  infinite  are 
the  class  distinctions  among  men ;  and  pos- 
sibly, by  a  happy  dispensation,  there  is  no 
one  at  all  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale  ;  no 
one  but  can  find  some  superiority  over 
somebody  else,  to  keep  up  his  pride  withal. 
We  were  displeased  enough  with  our 
fare.  Particularly  the  Cigarette ;  for  I 
tried  to  make  believe  that  I  was  amused 
with  the  adventure,  tough  beef-steak  and 
all.  According  to  the  Liicretian  maxim, 
our  steak  should  have  been  flavoured  by 
the  look  of  the  other  people's  bread-berr}-. 
But  we  did  not  find  it  so  in  practice.  You 
may  have  a  head  knowledge  that  other 
people  live  more  poorly  than  yourself,  but 
it  is  not  agreeable — I  was  going  to  say,  it 


54  An  Inland  Voyage 

is  against  the  etiquette  of  the  universe — to 
sit  at  the  same  table  and  pick  your  own 
superior  diet  from  among  their  crusts.  I 
had  not  seen  such  a  thing  done  since  the 
greedy  boy  at  school  with  his  birthday  cake. 
It  was  odious  enough  to  witness,  I  could 
remember ;  and  I  had  never  thought  to 
play  the  part  myself.  But  there  again  you 
see  what  it  is  to  be  a  pedlar. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  poorer  classes 
in  our  country  are  much  more  charitably 
disposed  than  their  superiors  in  wealth. 
And  I  fancy  it  must  arise  a  great  deal  from 
the  comparative  indistinction  of  the  easy 
and  the  not  so  easy  in  these  ranks.  A  work- 
man or  a  pedlar  cannot  shutter  himself  off 
from  his  less  comfortable  neighbours.  If 
he  treats  himself  to  a  luxury,  he  must  do  it 
in  the  face  of  a  dozen  who  cannot.  And 
what  should  more  directly  lead  to  chari- 
table thoughts  ?  .  .  .  Thus  the  poor 
man,  camping  out  in  life,  sees  it  as  it  is, 
and  knows  that  every  mouthful  he  puts  in 
his  belly  has  been  wrenched  out  of  the 
fingers  of  the  hungry. 


Pont-sur-Sambre  5  5 

But  at  a  certain  stage  of  prosperity,  as 
in  a  balloon  ascent,  the  fortunate  person 
passes  through  a  zone  of  clouds,  and  sub- 
lunary matters  are  thenceforward  hidden 
from  his  view.  He  sees  nothing  but  the 
heavenly  bodies,  all  in  admirable  order  and 
positively  as  good  as  new.  He  finds  him- 
self surrounded  in  the  most  touching  man- 
ner by  the  attentions  of  Providence,  and 
compares  himself  involuntarily  with  the 
lilies  and  the  skylarks.  He  does  not  pre- 
cisely sing,  of  course  ;  but  then  he  looks  so 
unassuming  in  his  open  Landmi !  If  all 
the  world  dined  at  one  table,  this  philos- 
ophy would  meet  with  some   rude  knocks. 


PONT-SUR-SAMBRE 
THE  TRAVELLING  MERCHANT 

T  IKE  the  lackeys  in  Molilris  farce,  when 
the  true  nobleman  broke  in  on  their 
high  life  below  stairs,  we  were  destined  to 
be  confronted  with  a  real  pedlar.  To  make 
the  lesson  still  more  poignant  for  fallen 
gentlemen  like  us,  he  was  a  pedlar  of  infin- 
itely more  consideration  than  the  sort  of 
scurvy  fellows  we  were  taken  for:  like  a 
lion  among  mice,  or  a  ship  of  war  bearing 
down  upon  two  cock-boats.  Indeed,  he 
did  not  deserve  the  name  of  pedlar  at  all : 
he  was  a  travelling  merchant. 

I  suppose  it  was  about  half-past  eight 
when  this  worthy.  Monsieur  Hector  Gilliard 
of  Maiibeuge,  turned  up  at  the  ale-house 
door  in  a  tilt  cart  drawn  by  a  donkey,  and 
cried  cheerily  on  the  inhabitants.  He  was  a 
lean,  nervous  flibbertigibbet  of  a  man,  with 


Pont-sur-Sambre  57 

something  the  look  of  an  actor,  and  some- 
thing the  look  of  a  horse  jockey.  He  had 
evidently  prospered  without  any  of  the 
favours  of  education  ;  for  he  adhered  with 
stern  simplicity  to  the  masculine  gender, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  evening  passed  off 
some  fancy  futures  in  a  very  florid  style  of 
architecture.  With  him  came  his  wife,  a 
comely  young  woman  with  her  hair  tied  in 
a  yellow  kerchief,  and  their  son,  a  little 
fellow  of  four,  in  a  blouse  and  military  k^pi. 
It  was  notable  that  the  child  was  many 
degrees  better  dressed  than  either  of  the 
parents.  We  were  informed  he  was  already 
at  a  boarding  school  ;  but  the  holidays 
having  just  commenced,  he  was  off  to 
spend  them  with  his  parents  on  a  cruise. 
An  enchanting  holiday  occupation,  was  it 
not?  to  travel  all  day  with  father  and 
mother  in  the  tilt  cart  full  of  countless 
treasures  ;  the  green  country  rattling  by  on 
either  side,  and  the  children  in  all  the 
villages  contemplating  him  with  envy  and 
wonder?  It  is  better  fun,  during  the  holi- 
days, to  be  the  son  of  a  travelling  mer- 


58  An  Inland  Voyage 

chant,  than  son  and  heir  to  the  greatest 
cotton  spinner  in  creation.  And  as  for 
being  a  reigning  prince — indeed  I  never 
saw  one  if  it  was  not  Master  Gilliard ! 

While  M.  Hector  and  the  son  of  the 
house  were  putting  up  the  donkey,  and  get- 
ting all  the  valuables  under  lock  and  key, 
the  landlady  warmed  up  the  remains  of  our 
beef-steak,  and  fried  the  cold  potatoes  in 
slices,  and  Madame  Gilliard  set  herself  to 
waken  the  boy,  who  had  come  far  that  day, 
and  was  peevish  and  dazzled  by  the  light. 
He  was  no  sooner  awake  than  he  began  to 
prepare  himself  for  supper  by  eating  ga- 
lette,  unripe  pears  and  cold  potatoes — with, 
so  far  as  I  could  judge,  positive  benefit  to 
his  appetite. 

The  landlady,  fired  with  motherly  emula- 
tion, awoke  her  own  little  girl ;  and  the  two 
children  were  confronted.  Master  Gilliard 
looked  at  her  for  a  moment,  very  much  as 
a  dog  looks  at  his  own  reflection  in  a  mir- 
ror before  he  turns  away.  He  was  at  that 
time  absorbed  in  the  galette.  His  mother 
seemed  crestfallen  that   he  should   display 


Pont-siir-Sambre  59 

so  little  inclination  towards  the  other  sex  ; 
and  expressed  her  disappointment  with 
some  candour  and  a  very  proper  reference 
to  the  influence  of  years. 

Sure  enough  a  time  will  come  when  he 
will  pay  more  attention  to  the  girls,  and 
think  a  great  deal  less  of  his  mother:  let  us 
hope  she  will  like  it  as  well  as  she  seemed 
to  fancy.  /But  it  is  odd  enough  ;  the  very 
women  who  profess  most  contempt  for 
mankind  as  a  sex,  seem  to  find  even  its 
ugliest  particulars  rather  lively  and  high- 
minded  in  their  own  sons. 

The  little  girl  looked  longer  and  with 
more  interest,  probably  because  she  was  in 
her  own  house,  while  he  was  a  traveller  and 
accustomed  to  strange  sights.  And  besides 
there  was  no  galette  in  the  case  with  her. 

All  the  time  of  supper,  there  was  noth- 
ing spoken  of  but  my  young  lord.  The 
two  parents  were  both  absurdly  fond  of 
their  child.  Monsieur  kept  insisting  on  his 
sagacity  :  how  he  knew  all  the  children  at 
school  by  name ;  and  when  this  utterly 
failed  on   trial,  how   he  was   cautious  and 


6o  An  Inland  Voyage 

exact  to  a  strange  degree,  and  if  asked  any- 
thing, he  would  sit  and  think — and  think, 
and  if  he  did  not  know  it,  "  my  faith,  he 
wouldn't  tell  you  at  all — via  foi,  il  7ie  vous 
le  dira  pas^  Which  is  certainly  a  very 
high  degree  of  caution.  At  intervals,  M. 
Hector  would  appeal  to  his  wife,  with  his 
mouth  full  of  beef-steak,  as  to  the  little  fel- 
low's age  at  such  or  such  a  time  when  he 
had  said  or  done  something  memorable ; 
and  I  noticed  that  Madame  usually  pooh- 
poohed  these  inquiries.  She  herself  was 
not  boastful  in  her  vein ;  but  she  never  had 
her  fill  of  caressing  the  child ;  and  she 
seemed  to  take  a  gentle  pleasure  in  recall- 
ing all  that  was  fortunate  in  his  little  exist- 
ence. No  schoolboy  could  have  talked 
more  of  the  holidays  which  were  just  begin- 
ning and  less  of  the  black  schooltime  which 
must  inevitably  follow  after.  She  showed, 
with  a  pride  perhaps  partly  mercantile  in 
origin,  his  pockets  preposterously  swollen 
with  tops  and  whistles  and  string.  When 
she  called  at  a  house  in  the  way  of  busi- 
ness, it  appeared   he  kept   her  company ; 


Pont-sw^-Sambre  6i 

and  whenever  a  sale  was  made,  received  a 
sou  out  of  the  profit.  Indeed  they  spoiled 
him  vastly,  these  two  good  jjeople.  But 
they  had  an  eye  to  his  manners  for  all  that, 
and  reproved  him  for  some  little  faults  in 
breeding,  which  occurred  from  time  to  time 
during  supper. 

On  the  whole,  I  was  not  much  hurt  at 
being  taken  for  a  pedlar.  I  might  think 
that  I  ate  with  greater  delicacy,  or  that  my 
mistakes  in  French  belonged  to  a  different 
order ;  but  it  w^as  plain  that  these  distinc- 
tions would  be  thrown  away  upon  the  land- 
lady and  the  two  labourers.  In  all  essential 
things,  we  and,  the  Gilliards  cut  very  much 
the  same  figure  in  the  ale-house  kitchen. 
M.  Hector  was  more  at  home,  indeed,  and 
took  a  higher  tone  with  the  world ;  but 
that  w^as  explicable  on  the  ground  of  his 
driving  a  donkey-cart,  while  we  poor  bodies 
tramped  afoot.  I  daresay,  the  rest  of  the 
company  thought  us  dying  with  envy, 
though  in  no  ill-sense,  to  be  as  far  up  in 
the  profession  as  the  new  arrival. 

And  of  one  thing  I  am  sure  :  that  every- 


62  An  Inland  Voyage 

one  thawed  and  became  more  humanized 
and  conversible  as  soon  as  these  innocent 
people  appeared  upon  the  scene.  I  would 
not  very  readily  trust  the  travelling  mer- 
chant with  any  extravagant  sum  of  money; 
but  I  am  sure  his  heart  was  in  the  right 
place.  In  this  mixed  world,  if  you  can  find 
one  or  two  sensible  places  in  a  man,  above 
all,  if  you  should  find  a  whole  family  liv- 
ing together  on  such  pleasant  terms  you 
may  surely  be  satisfied,  and  take  the 
rest  for  granted  ;  or,  what  is  a  great  deal 
better,  boldly  make  up  your  mind  that 
you  can  do  perfectly  well  without  the 
rest ;  and  that  ten  thousand  bad  traits 
cannot  make  a  single  good  one  any  the 
less  good. 

It  was  getting  late.  M.  Hector  lit  a 
stable  lantern  and  went  off  to  his  cart  for 
some  arrangements  ;  and  my  young  gentle- 
man proceeded  to  divest  himself  of  the 
better  part  of  his  raiment,  and  play  gym- 
nastics on  his  mother's  lap,  and  thence 
on  to  the  floor,  with  accompaniment  of 
laughter. 


Po7it-s2Lr-Sambre  63 

"  Are  you  going  to  sleep  alone  ?  "  asked 
the  servant  lass. 

"  There's  little  fear  of  that,"  says  Master 
Gilliard. 

"  You  sleep  alone  at  school,"  objected 
his  mother.  "Come,  come,  you  must  be 
a  man." 

But  he  protested  that  school  was  a  dif- 
ferent matter  from  the  holidays  ;  that  there 
were  dormitories  at  school ;  and  silenced 
the  discussion  with  kisses :  his  mother 
smiling,  no  one  better  pleased  than  she. 

There  certainly  was,  as  he  phrased  it,  very 
little  fear  that  he  should  sleep  alone  ;  for 
there  was  but  one  bed  for  the  trio.  We, 
on  our  part,  had  firmly  protested  against 
one  man's  accommodation  for  two ;  and 
we  had  a  double-bedded  pen  in  the  loft 
of  the  house,  furnished,  beside  the  beds, 
with  exactly  three  hat  pegs  and  one  table. 
There  was  not  so  much  as  a  glass  of  water. 
But  the  window  would  open,  by  good  for- 
tune. 

Some  time  before  I  fell  asleep  the  loft 
was  full  of  the  sound   of  mighty  snoring : 


64  An  Inlajid   Voyage 

the  Gilliards,  and  the  labourers,  and  the 
people  of  the  inn,  all  at  it,  I  suppose,  with 
one  consent.  The  young  moon  outside 
shone  very  clearly  over  Pont-sur-Sambre, 
and  down  upon  the  ale-house  where  all  we 
pedlars  were  abed. 


ON   THE   SAMBRE   CANALISED 
TO  LANDRECIES 

TN  the  morning,  when  we  came  down- 
stairs, the  landlady  pointed  out  to  us 
two  pails  of  water  behind  the  street-door. 
"  Voila  de  Veau  pour  vous  dcbarbouillery 
says  she.  And  so  there  we  made  a  shift 
to  wash  ourselves,  while  Madame  Gilliard 
brushed  the  family  boots  on  the  outer 
doorstep,  and  M.  Hector,  whistling  cheerily, 
arranged  some  small  goods  for  the  day's 
campaign  in  a  portable  chest  of  drawers, 
which  formed  a  part  of  his  baggage.  Mean- 
while the  child  was  letting  off  Waterloo 
crackers  all  over  the  floor. 

I  wonder  by-the-by,  what  they  call 
Waterloo  crackers  in  France ;  perhaps  Aus- 
terlitz  crackers.  There  is  a  great  deal  in 
the  point  of  view.  Do  you  remember  the 
Frenchman  who,  travelling  by  way  of  South- 


^^  An  Inland  Voyage 

ainpion,  was  put  down  in  Waterloo  Station, 
and  had  to  drive  across  Waterloo  Bridge  ? 
He  had  a  mind  to  go  home  again,  it  seems. 

Po7it  itself  is  on  the  river,  but  whereas  it 
is  ten  minutes'  walk  from  Quartes  by  dry 
land,  it  is  six  weary  kilometres  by  water. 
We  left  our  bags  at  the  inn,  and  walked  to 
our  canoes  through  the  wet  orchards  unen- 
cumbered. Some  of  the  children  were 
there  to  see  us  off,  but  we  were  no  longer 
the  mysterious  beings  of  the  night  before. 
A  departure  is  much  less  romantic  than  an 
unexplained  arrival  in  the  golden  evening. 
Although  we  might  be  greatly  taken  at  a 
ghost's  first  appearance,  we  should  behold 
him  vanish  with  comparative   equanimity. 

The  good  folk  of  the  inn  at  Po7it,  when 
we  called  there  for  the  bags,  were  overcome 
with  marvelling.  At  sight  of  these  two 
dainty  little  boats,  with  a  fluttering  Union 
Jack  on  each,  and  all  the  varnish  shining 
from  the  sponge,  they  began  to  perceive 
that  they  had  entertained  angels  unawares. 
The  landlady  stood  upon  the  bridge,  prob- 
ably lamenting  she  had  charged  so  little  ; 


On  the  Sambre  Canalised        67 

the  son  ran  to  and  fro,  and  called  out  the 
neighbours  to  enjoy  the  sight ;  and  we 
paddled  away  from  quite  a  crowd  of  wrapt 
observers.  These  gentlemen  pedlars,  in- 
deed !  Now  you  see  their  quality  too  late. 
The  whole  day  was  showery,  with  occa- 
sional drenching  plumps.  We  were  soaked 
to  the  skin,  then  partially  dried  in  the  sun, 
then  soaked  once  more.  But  there  were 
some  calm  intervals,  and  one  notably,  when 
we  were  skirting  the  forest  of  Mormal,  a 
sinister  name  to  the  ear,  but  a  place  most 
gratifying  to  sight  and  smell.  It  looked 
solemn  along  the  river  side,  drooping  its 
boughs  into  the  water,  and  piling  them  up 
aloft  into  a  wall  of  leaves.  What  is  a  for- 
est but  a  city  of  nature's  own,  full  of  hardy 
and  innocuous  living  things,  where  there  is 
nothing  dead  and  nothing  made  with  the 
hands,  but  the  citizens  themselves  are  the 
houses  and  public  monuments  ?  There  is 
nothing  so  much  alive,  and  yet  so  quie^,  as 
a  woodland  ;  and  a  pair  of  people,  swinging 
past  in  canoes,  feel  very  small  and  bustling 
by  comparison. 


68  An  Inland  Voyage 

And  surely  of  all  smells  in  the  world,  the 
smell  of  many  trees  is  the  sweetest  and 
most  fortifying.  The  sea  has  a  rude,  pis- 
tolling sort  of  odour,  that  takes  you  in  the 
nostrils  like  snuff,  and  carries  with  it  a  fine 
sentiment  of  open  water  and  tall  ships ;  but 
the  smell  of  a  forest,  which  comes  nearest 
to  this  in  tonic  quality,  surpasses  it  by 
many  degrees  in  the  quality  of  softness. 
Again,  the  smell  of  the  sea  has  little  vari- 
ety, but  the  smell  of  a  forest  is  infinitely 
changeful ;  it  varies  with  the  hour  of  the 
day  not  in  strength  merely,  but  in  charac- 
ter ;  and  the  different  sorts  of  trees,  as  you 
go  from  one  zone  of  the  wood  to  another, 
seem  to  live  among  different  kinds  of  at- 
mosphere. Usually  the  resin  of  the  fir  pre- 
dominates. But  some  woods  are  more 
coquettish  in  their  habits  ;  and  the  breath 
of  the  forest  of  Mormal,  as  it  came  aboard 
upon  us  that  showery  afternoon,  was  per- 
fumed with  nothing  less  delicate  than 
sweetbriar. 

I  wish  our  way  had  always  lain  among 
woods.     Trees  are  the   most   civil   society. 


On  the  Sambre   Canalised        69 

An  old  oak  that  has  been  growing  where 
he  stands  since  before  the  Reformation, 
taller  than  many  spires,  more  stately  than 
the  greater  part  of  mountains,  and  yet  a 
living  thing,  liable  to  sicknesses  and  death, 
like  you  and  me :  is  not  that  in  itself  a 
speaking  lesson  in  history  ?  But  acres  on 
acres  full  of  such  patriarchs  contiguously 
rooted,  their  green  tops  billowing  in  the 
wind,  their  stalwart  younglings  pushing  up 
about  their  knees  :  a  whole  forest,  healthy 
and  beautiful,  giving  colour  to  the  light, 
giving  perfume  to  the  air :  what  is  this  but 
the  most  imposing  piece  in  nature's  reper- 
tory? Heine  wished  to  lie  like  Merlin 
under  the  oaks  of  Broceliande.  I  should 
not  be  satisfied  with  one  tree  ;  but  if  the 
wood  grew  together  like  a  banyan  grove,  I 
would  be  buried  under  the  tap-root  of  the 
whole  ;  my  parts  should  circulate  from  oak 
to  oak ;  and  my  consciousness  should  be 
diffused  abroad  in  all  the  forest,  and  give 
a  common  heart  to  that  assembly  of  green 
spires,  so  that  it  also  might  rejoice  in  its 
own  loveliness  and  dignity.     I   think   I  feel 


70  All  Inland  Voyage 

a  thousand  squirrels  leaping  from  bough  to 
bough  in  my  vast  mausoleum  ;  and  the 
birds  and  the  winds  merrily  coursing  over 
its  uneven,  leafy  surface. 

Alas !  the  forest  of  Mornial  is  only  a 
little  bit  of  a  wood,  and  it  was  but  for  a 
little  way  that  we  skirted  by  its  boundaries. 
And  the  rest  of  the  time  the  rain  kept 
coming  in  squirts  and  the  wind  in  squalls, 
until  one's  heart  grew  weary  of  such  fitful, 
scolding  weather.  It  was  odd  how  the 
showers  began  when  we  had  to  carry  the 
boats  over  a  lock,  and  must  expose  our 
legs.  They  always  did.  This  is  a  sort  of 
thing  that  readily  begets  a  personal  feel- 
ing against  nature.  There  seems  no  reason 
why  the  shower  should  not  come  five  min- 
utes before  or  five  minutes  after,  unless 
you  suppose  an  intention  to  affront  you. 
The  Cigarette  had  a  mackintosh  which  put 
him  more  or  less  above  these  contrarieties. 
But  I  had  to  bear  the  brunt  uncovered.  I 
began  to  remember  that  nature  was  a 
woman.  My  companion,  in  a  rosier  temper, 
listened  with  great  satisfaction  to  my  Jer- 


On  tJic  Sainbrc   Canalised        7^ 

emiads,  and  ironically  concurred.  He  in- 
stanced, as  a  cognate  matter,  the  action  of 
the  tides,  "  Which,"  said  he,  "  was  alto- 
gether designed  for  the  confusion  of  canoe- 
ists, except  in  so  far  as  it  was  calculated  to 
minister  to  a  barren  vanity  on  the  part  of 
the  moon." 

At  the  last  lock,  some  little  way  out  of 
Landrecies,  I  refused  to  go  any  further ; 
and  sat  in  a  drift  of  rain  by  the  side  of  the 
bank,  to  have  a  reviving  pipe.  A  vivacious 
old  man,  whom  I  take  to  have  been  the 
devil,  drew  near  and  questioned  me  about 
our  journey.  In  the  fulness  of  my  heart, 
I  laid  bare  our  plans  before  him.  He  said, 
it  was  the  silliest  enterprise  that  ever  he 
heard  of.  Why,  did  I  not  know,  he  asked 
me,  that  it  was  nothing  but  locks,  locks, 
locks,  the  whole  way  ?  not  to  mention  that, 
at  this  season  of  the  year,  we  should  find 
the  Oise  quite  dry  ?  "  Get  into  a  train,  my 
little  young  man,"  said  he,  '•  and  go  you 
away  home  to  your  parents."  I  was  so 
astounded  at  the  man's  malice,  that  I  could 
only  stare  at  him  in  silence.     A  tree  would 


72  A 72  Inland   Voyage 

never  have  spoken  to  me  like  this.  At  last, 
I  got  out  with  some  words.  We  had  come 
from  Antzverp  already,  I  told  him,  which 
was  a  good  long  way  ;  and  we  should  do 
the  rest  in  spite  of  him.  Yes,  I  said,  if 
there  were  no  other  reason,  I  would  do  it 
now,  just  because  he  had  dared  to  say  we 
could  not.  The  pleasant  old  gentleman 
looked  at  me  sneeringly,  made  an  allusion 
to  my  canoe,  and  marched  off,  waggling  his 
head. 

I  was  still  inwardly  fuming,  when  up 
came  a  pair  of  young  fellows,  who  imagined 
I  was  the  Cigarette  s  servant,  on  a  compari- 
son, I  suppose,  of  my  bare  jersey  with  the 
other's  mackintosh,  and  asked  me  many 
questions  about  my  place  and  my  master's 
character.  I  said  he  was  a  good  enough 
fellow,  but  had  this  absurd  voyage  on  the 
head.  "  O  no,  no,"  said  one,  "  you  must 
not  say  that  ;  it  is  not  absurd  ;  it  is  very 
courageous  of  him."  I  believe  these  were 
a  couple  of  angels  sent  to  give  me  heart 
again.  It  was  truly  fortifying  to  reproduce 
all  the   old    man's   insinuations,  as  if    they 


On  the  Sainbre  Canalised        73 

were  original  to  me  in  my  character  of 
a  malcontent  footman,  and  have  them 
brushed  away  like  so  many  flies  by  these 
admirable  young  men. 

When  I  recounted  this  affair  to  the  Cig- 
arette, "  they  must  have  a  curious  idea  of 
how  English  servants  behave,"  says  he, 
dryly,  "  for  you  treated  me  like  a  brute 
beast  at  the  lock." 

I  was  a  good  deal  mortified  ;  but  my 
temper  had  suffered,  it  is  a  fact. 


AT   LANDRECIES 

A  T  Landrecics  the  rain  still  fell  and  the 
wind  still  blew  ;  but  we  found  a  dou- 
ble-bedded room  with  plenty  of  furniture, 
real  water-jugs  with  real  water  in  them,  and 
dinner  :  a  real  dinner,  not  innocent  of  real 
wine.  After  having  been  a  pedlar  for  one 
night,  and  a  butt  for  the  elements  during 
the  whole  of  the  next  day,  these  comfort- 
able circumstances  fell  on  my  heart  like 
sunshine.  There  was  an  English  fruiterer 
at  dinner,  travelling  with  a  Belgian  fruit- 
erer ;  in  the  evening  at  the  cafe,  we  watched 
our  compatriot  drop  a  good  deal  of  money 
at  corks  ;  and  I  don't  know  why,  but  this 
pleased  us. 

It  turned  out  we  were  to  see  more  of 
Landrecics  than  we  expected  ;  for  the 
weather  next  day  was  simply  bedlamite. 
It  is  not  the  place  one  would  have  chosen 
for  a  day's  rest ;  for  it  consists  almost  en- 


At  Landrecies  75 

tirely  of  fortifications.  Within  the  ram- 
parts, a  few  blocks  of  houses,  a  long  row  of 
barracks,  and  a  church,  figure,  with  what 
countenance  they  may,  as  the  town.  There 
seems  to  be  no  trade ;  and  a  shopkeeper 
from  whom  I  bought  a  sixpenny  flint  and 
steel,  was  so  much  affected,  that  he  filled 
my  pockets  with  spare  flints  into  the  bar- 
gain. The  only  public  buildings  that  had 
any  interest  for  us,  were  the  hotel  and  the 
cafe.  But  we  visited  the  church.  There  lies 
Marshal  Clarke.  But  as  neither  of  us  had 
ever  heard  of  that  military  hero,  we  bore 
the  associations  of  the  spot  with  fortitude. 
In  all  garrison  towns,  guard-calls,  and 
reveilles,  and  such  like,  make  a  fine  roman- 
tic interlude  in  civic  business.  Bugles,  and 
drums,  and  fifes,  are  of  themselves  most 
excellent  things  in  nature  ;  and  when  they 
carry  the  mind  to  marching  armies,  and  the 
picturesque  vicissitudes  of  war,  they  stir 
up  something  proud  in  the  heart.  But  in 
a  shadow  of  a  town  like  Landrecies,  with 
little  else  moving,  these  points  of  war  made 
a  proportionate  commotion.     Indeed,  they 


76  An  hiland  Voyage 

were  the  only  things  to  remember.  It  was 
just  the  place  to  hear  the  round  going  by 
at  night  in  the  darkness,  with  the  solid 
tramp  of  men  marching,  and  the  startling 
reverberations  of  the  drum.  It  reminded 
you,  that  even  this  place  was  a  point  in 
the  great  warfaring  system  of  Europe,  and 
might  on  some  future  day  be  ringed  about 
with  cannon  smoke  and  thunder,  and 
make  itself  a  name  among  strong  towns. 

The  drum,  at  any  rate,  from  its  martial 
voice  and  notable  physiological  effect,  nay 
even  from  its  cumbrous  and  comical  shape, 
stands  alone  among  the  instruments  of 
noise.  And  if  it  be  true,  as  I  have  heard 
it  said,  that  drums  are  covered  with  asses' 
skin,  what  a  picturesque  irony  is  there  in 
that  !  As  if  this  long-suffering  animal's 
hide  had  not  been  sufficiently  belaboured 
during  life,  now  by  Lyonnese  costermon- 
gers,  now  by  presumptuous  Hebrew  proph- 
ets, it"  must  be  stripped  from  his  poor 
hinder  quarters  after  death,  stretched  on  a 
drum,  and  beaten  night  after  night  round 
the  streets  of   every  garrison  town  in   Eu- 


At  Landrecies  77 

rope.  And  up  the  heights  of  Alma  and 
Spicheren,  and  wherever  death  has  his  red 
flag  a-flying,  and  sounds  his  own  potent 
tuck  upon  the  cannons,  there  also  must  the 
drummer  boy,  hurrying  with  white  face 
over  fallen  comrades,  batter  and  bemaul 
this  slip  of  skin  from  the  loins  of  peaceable 
donkeys. 

Generally  a  man  is  never  more  uselessly 
employed  than  when  he  is  at  this  trick  of 
bastinadoing  asses'  hide.  We  know  what 
effect  it  has  in  life,  and  how  your  dull  ass 
will  not  mend  his  pace  with  beating.  But 
in  this  state  of  mummy  and  melancholy 
survival  of  itself,  when  the  hollow  skin  re- 
verberates to  the  drummer's  wrist,  and 
each  dub-a-dub  goes  direct  to  a  man's 
heart,  and  puts  madness  there,  and  that 
disposition  of  the  pulses  which  we,  in  our 
big  way  of  talking,  nickname  Heroism  : — is 
there  not  something  in  the  nature  of  a  re- 
venge upon  the  donkey's  persecutors?  Of 
old,  he  might  say,  you  drubbed  me  up  hill 
and  down  dale,  and  I  must  endure ;  but 
now  that   I   am   dead,  those   dull  thwacks 


78  An  Inland   Voyage 

that  were  scarcely  audible  in  country  lanes, 
have  become  stirring  music  in  front  of  the 
brigade  ;  and  for  every  blow  that  you  lay 
on  my  old  great  coat,  you  will  see  a  com- 
rade stumble  and  fall. 

Not  long  after  the  drums  had  passed  the 
caf^,  the  Cigarette  and  the  Arethiisa  began 
to  grow  sleepy,  and  set  out  for  the  hotel 
which  was  only  a  door  or  two  away.  But 
although  we  had  been  somewhat  indifferent 
to  Landrecies,  Landrecies  had  not  been  in- 
different to  us.  All  day,  we  learned,  peo- 
ple had  been  running  out  between  the 
squalls  to  visit  our  two  boats.  Hundreds 
of  persons,  so  said  report,  although  it  fitted 
ill  with  our  idea  of  the  town — hundreds  of 
persons  had  inspected  them  where  they  lay 
in  a  coal-shed.  We  were  becoming  lions  in 
Landrecies,  who  had  been  only  pedlars  the 
night  before  in  Po7it. 

And  now,  when  we  left  the  cafd,  we  were 
pursued  and  overtaken  at  the  hotel  door,  by 
no  less  a  person  than  the  Jnge  de  Paix :  a 
functionary,  as  far  as  I  can  make  out,  of  the 
character   of   a    Scotch    Sheriff  Substitute. 


At  Laridrccies  79 

He  gave  us  his  card  and  invited  us  to  sup 
with  him  on  the  spot,  very  neatly,  very 
■  gracefully,  as  Frenchmen  can  do  these 
things.  It  was  for  the  credit  of  Landrecies, 
said  he  ;  and  although  we  knew  very  well 
how  little  credit  we  could  do  the  place,  we 
must  have  been  churlish  fellows  to  refuse 
an  invitation  so  politely  introduced. 

The  house  of  the  Judge  was  close  by  ;  it 
was  a  well-appointed  bachelor's  establish- 
ment with  a  curious  collection  of  old  brass 
warming-pans  upon  the  walls.  Some  of 
these  were  most  elaborately  carved.  It 
seemed  a  picturesque  idea  for  a  collector. 
You  could  not  help  thinking  how  many 
night-caps  had  wagged  over  these  warming- 
pans  in  past  generations  ;  what  jests  may 
have  been  made,  and  kisses  taken,  while 
they  were  in  service ;  and  how  often  they 
had  been  uselessly  paraded  in  the  bed  of 
death.  If  they  could  only  speak,  at  what 
absurd,  indecorous  and  tragical  scenes,  had 
they  not  been  present ! 

The  wine  was  excellent.  When  we  made 
the  Judge  our  compliments  upon  a  bottle, 


8o  An  Inland  Voyage 

"  I  do  not  give  it  you  as  my  worst,"  said 
he.  I  wonder  when  Englishmen  will  learn 
these  hospitable  graces.  They  are  worth 
learning ;  they  set  off  life,  and  make  ordi- 
nary moments  ornamental. 

There  were  two  other  Landrecienses  pres- 
ent. One  was  the  collector  of  something 
or  other,  I  forget  what  ;  the  other,  we  were 
told,  was  the  principal  notary  of  the  place. 
So  it  happened  that  we  all  five  more  or  less 
followed  the  law.  At  this  rate,  the  talk  was 
pretty  certain  to  become  technical.  The 
Cigarette  expounded  the  poor  laws  very 
magisterially.  And  a  little  later  I  found 
myself  laying  down  the  Scotch  Law  of  Ille- 
gitimacy, of  which  I  am  glad  to  say  I  know 
nothing.  The  collector  and  the  notary,  who 
were  both  married  men,  accused  the  Judge, 
who  was  a  bachelor,  of  having  started  the 
subject.  He  deprecated  the  charge,  with  a 
conscious,  pleased  air,  just  like  all  the  men  I 
have  ever  seen,  be  they  French  or  English. 
How  strange  that  we  should  all,  in  our  un- 
guarded moments,  rather  like  to  be  thought 
a  bit  of  a  roerue  with  the  women  ! 


A^  Landrecies  8i 

As  the  evening  went  on,  the  wine  grew 
more  to  my  taste ;  the  spirits  proved 
better  than  the  wine ;  the  company  was 
genial.  This  was  the  highest  water  mark 
of  popular  favour  on  the  whole  cruise. 
After  all,  being  in  a  Judge's  house,  was 
there  not  something  semi-of^cial  in  the 
tribute  ?  And  so,  remembering  what  a 
great  country  France  is,  we  did  full  justice 
to  our  entertainment.  Landrecies  had  been 
a  long  while  asleep  before  we  returned  to 
the  hotel  ;  and  the  sentries  on  the  ram- 
parts were  already  looking  for  daybreak. 
6 


SAMBRE   AND  OISE   CANAL 
CANAL   BOATS 

jVj  EXT  day  we  made  a  late  start  in  the 
rain.  The  Judge  poHtely  escorted  us 
to  the  end  of  the  lock  under  an  umbrella. 
We  had  now  brought  ourselves  to  a  pitch 
of  humility  in  the  matter  of  weather,  not 
often  attained  except  in  the  Scotch  High- 
lajids.  A  rag  of  blue  sky  or  a  glimpse  of 
sunshine  set  our  hearts  singing ;  and  when 
the  rain  was  not  heavy,  we  counted  the  day 
almost  fair. 

Long  lines  of  barges  lay  one  after  another 
aloncr  the  canal ;  many  of  them  looking 
mighty  spruce  and  ship-shape  in  their  jerkin 
of  Archangel  tar  picked  out  with  white 
and  green.  Some  carried  gay  iron  railings, 
and  quite  a  parterre  of  flowerpots.  Chil- 
dren played  on  the  decks,  as  heedless  of 
the  rain    as   if  they  had  been   brought  up 


The  Sanibre  and  Oise  Canal     83 

on  Loch  Garron  side ;  men  fished  over  the 
gunwale,  some  of  them  under  umbrellas ; 
women  did  their  washing;  and  every  barge 
boasted  its  mongrel  cur  by  way  of  watch- 
dog. Each  one  barked  furiously  at  the 
canoes,  running  alongside  until  he  had  got 
to  the  end  of  his  own  ship,  and  so  passing 
on  the  word  to  the  dog  aboard  the  next. 
We  must  have  seen  something  like  a  hun- 
dred of  these  embarkations  in  the  course 
of  that  day's  paddle,  ranged  one  after 
another  like  the  houses  in  a  street ;  and 
from  not  one  of  them  were  we  disappointed 
of  this  accompaniment.  It  was  like  visit- 
ing a  menagerie,  the  Cigarette  remarked. 

These  little  cities  by  the  canal  side  had 
a  very  odd  effect  upon  the  mind.  They 
seemed,  with  their  flowerpots  and  smoking 
chimneys,  their  washings  and  dinners,  a 
rooted  piece  of  nature  in  the  scene  ;  and  yet 
if  only  the  canal  below  were  to  open,  one 
junk  after  another  would  hoist  sail  or  har- 
ness horses  and  swim  away  into  all  parts  of 
France ;  and  the  impromptu  hamlet  would 
separate,  house  by  house,  to  the  four  winds. 


84  All  Inland   Voyage 

The  children  who  played  together  to-day 
by  the  Sanibre  and  Oise  Canal,  each  at  his 
own  father's  threshold,  when  and  where 
might  they  next  meet  ? 

For  some  time  past  the  subject  of  barges 
had  occupied  a  great  deal  of  our  talk,  and 
we  had  projected  an  old  age  on  the  canals 
of  Europe.  It  was  to  be  the  most  leisurely 
of  progresses,  now  on  a  swift  river  at  the 
tail  of  a  steam-boat,  now  waiting  horses 
for  days  together  on  some  inconsiderable 
junction.  We  should  be  seen  pottering  on 
deck  in  all  the  dignity  of  years,  our  white 
beards  falling  into  our  laps.  We  were  ever 
to  be  busied  among  paintpots ;  so  that 
there  should  be  no  white  fresher,  and  no 
green  more  emerald  than  ours,  in  all  the 
navy  of  the  canals.  There  should  be  books 
in  the  cabin,  and  tobacco  jars,  and  some 
old  Burgundy  as  red  as  a  November  sunset 
and  as  odorous  as  a  violet  in  April.  There 
should  be  a  flageolet  whence  the  Cigarette, 
with  cunning  touch,  should  draw  melting 
music  under  the  stars  ;  or  perhaps,  laying 
that    aside,    upraise   his    voice  —  somewhat 


The  Sambre  and  Oise  Canal     85 

thinner  than  of  yore,  and  with  here  and 
there  a  quaver,  or  call  it  a  natural  grace 
note — in  rich  and  solemn  psalmody. 

All  this  simmering  in  my  mind,  set  me 
wishing  to  go  aboard  one  of.  these  ideal 
houses  of  lounging.  I  had  plenty  to  choose 
from,  as  I  coasted  one  after  another,  and 
the  dogs  bayed  at  me  for  a  vagrant.  At 
last  I  saw  a  nice  old  man  and  his  wife  look- 
ing at  me  with  some  interest,  so  I  gave 
them  good  day  and  pulled  up  alongside.  I 
began  with  a  remark  upon  their  dog,  which 
had  somewhat  the  look  of  a  pointer;  thence 
I  slid  into  a  compliment  on  Madame's 
flowers,  and  thence  into  a  word  in  praise  of 
their  way  of  life. 

If  you  ventured  on  such  an  experiment 
in  England  you  would  get  a  slap  in  the 
face  at  once.  The  life  would  be  shown  to 
be  a  vile  one,  not  without  a  side  shot  at 
your  better  fortune.  Now,  what  I  like  so 
much  in  France  is  the  clear  unflinching 
recognition  by  everybody  of  his  own  luck. 
They  all  know  on  which  side  their  bread  is 
buttered,  and  take  a  pleasure  in  showing  it 


86  An  Inland  Voyage 

to  others,  which  is  surely  the  better  part  of 
reHgion.  And  they  scorn  to  make  a  poor 
mouth  over  their  poverty,  which  I  take  to 
be  the  better  part  of  manHness.  I  have 
heard  a  woman  in  quite  a  better  position 
at  home,  with  a  good  bit  of  money  in  hand, 
refer  to  her  own  child  with  a  horrid  whine 
as  "  a  poor  man's  child."  I  would  not  say 
such  a  thing  to  the  Duke  of  Westminster. 
And  the  French  are  full  of  this  spirit  of 
independence.  Perhaps  it  is  the  result  of 
republican  institutions,  as  they  call  them. 
Much  more  likely  it  is  because  there  are  so 
few  people  really  poor,  that  the  whiners 
are  not  enough  to  keep  each  other  in  coun- 
tenance. 

The  people  on  the  barge  were  delighted 
to  hear  that  I  admired  their  state.  They 
understood  perfectly  well,  they  told  me, 
how  Monsieur  envied  them.  Without 
doubt  Monsieur  was  rich  ;  and  in  that  case 
he  might  make  a  canal-boat  as  pretty  as  a 
villa — -joli  cojnine  iin  chateau.  And  with 
that  they  invited  me  on  board  their  own 
water    villa.       They    apologised     for    their 


The  Sarnbre  ajtd  Oise  Canal     87 

cabin  ;  they  had  not  been  rich  enough  to 
make  it  as  it  ought  to  be. 

"The  fire  should  have  been  here,  at  this 
side,"  explained  the  husband.  "Then  one 
might  have  a  writing-table  in  the  middle — 
books — and  "  (comprehensively)  "  all.  It 
would  be  quite  coquettish — qa  scrait  tout-a- 
fait  coqiiety  And  he  looked  about  him  as 
though  the  improvements  were  already 
made.  It  was  plainly  not  the  first  time 
that  he  had  thus  beautified  his  cabin  in 
imagination  ;  and  when  next  he  makes  a 
hit,  I  should  expect  to  see  the  writing-table 
in  the  middle. 

Madame  had  three  birds  in  a  cage. 
They  were  no  great  thing,  she  explained. 
Fine  birds  were  so  dear.  They  had  sought 
to  get  a  Hollandais  last  winter  in  Rouen 
{Rouen  ?  thought  I  ;  and  is  this  whole 
mansion,  with  its  dogs  and  birds  and 
smoking  chimneys,  so  far  a  traveller  as 
that?  and  as  homely  an  object  among  the 
cliffs  and  orchards  of  the  Seine  as  on  the 
green  plains  of  Sambre  ?') — they  had  sought 
to  get  a  Hollandais  last  winter  in   Rouen  ; 


88  An  Inland  Voyage 

but  these  cost  fifteen  francs  a-piece — pict- 
ure it — fifteen  francs  ! 

"  Ponr  wi  tout  petit  oiseau — For  quite  a 
little  bird,"  added  the  husband. 

As  I  continued  to  admire,  the  apologet- 
ics died  away,  and  the  good  people  began 
to  brag  of  their  barge,  and  their  happy  con- 
dition in  life,  as  if  they  had  been  Emperor 
and  Empress  of  the  Indies.  It  was,  in  the 
Scotch  phrase,  a  good  hearing,  and  put  me 
in  good  humour  with  the  world.  If  people 
knew  what  an  inspiriting  thing  it  is  to  hear 
a  man  boasting,  so  long  as  he  boasts  of 
what  he  really  has,  I  believe  they  would  do 
it  more  freely  and  with  a  better  grace. 

They  began  to  ask  about  our  voyage. 
You  should  have  seen  how  they  sympa- 
thised. They  seemed  half  ready  to  give 
up  their  barge  and  follow  us.  But  these 
canalctti  are  only  gipsies  semi-domesti- 
cated. The  semi-domestication  came  out 
in  rather  a  jDretty  form.  Suddenly  Ma- 
dame's  brow  darkened.  "  Cepcndant^'  she 
began,  and  then  stopped  ;  and  then  began 
again  by  asking  me  if  I  were  single  ? 


The  Sambre  and  Oise  Canal     89 

"Yes,"  said  I. 

"  And  your  friend  who  went  by  just 
now?  " 

He  also  was  unmarried- 

O  then — all  was  well.  She  could  not 
have  wives  left  alone  at  home  ;  but  since 
there  were  no  wives  in  the  question,  we 
were  doing  the  best  we  could. 

"  To  see  about  one  in  the  world,"  said 
the  husband,  "  il  ny  a  que  ^a — there  is 
nothing  else  worth  while.  A  man,  look 
you,  who  sticks  in  his  own  village  like  a 
bear,"  he  went  on,  " — very  M^ell,  he  sees 
nothing.  And  then  death  is  the  end  of  all. 
And  he  has  seen  nothing," 

Madame  reminded  her  husband  of  an 
Englishman  who  had  come  up  this  canal 
in  a  steamer. 

"Perhaps  Mr.  Moens  in  the  Ytene"  I 
suggested. 

"  That's  it,"  assented  the  husband. 
"  He  had  his  wife  and  family  with  him, 
and  servants.  He  came  ashore  at  all  the 
locks  and  asked  the  name  of  the  villages, 
whether    from    boatmen    or   lock-keepers ; 


90  An  Inland  Voyage 

and  then  he  wrote,  wrote  them  down.  O 
he  wrote  enormously  !  I  suppose  it  was  a 
wager." 

A  wager  was  a  common  enough  explana- 
tion for  our  own  exploits,  but  it  seemed 
an  original  reason  for  takinsf  notes. 


THE   OISE   IN   FLOOD 

DEFORE  nine  next  morning  the  two 
canoes  were  installed  on  a  light  country- 
cart  at  Etreux :  and  we  were  soon  follow- 
ing them  along  the  side  of  a  pleasant  val- 
ley full  of  hop-gardens  and  poplars.  Agree- 
able villages  lay  here  and  there  on  the  slope 
of  the  hill ;  notably,  Tiipigny,  with  the  hop- 
poles  hanging  their  garlands  in  the  very 
street,  and  the  houses  clustered  with  grapes. 
There  was  a  faint  enthusiasm  on  our  pass- 
age ;  weavers  put  their  heads  to  the  win- 
dows ;  children  cried  out  in  ecstasy  at  sight 
of  the  two  "  boaties  " — barqiiettes :  and 
bloused  pedestrians,  who  were  acquainted 
with  our  charioteer,  jested  with  him  on  the 
nature  of  his  freight. 

We  had  a  shower  or  two,  but  light  and 
flying.  The  air  was  clean  and  sweet  among 
all  these  green  fields  and  green  things  grow- 
ing.    There  was  not  a  touch  of  autumn  in 


92  An  Inland  Voyage 

the  weather.  And  when,  at  Vadencourt,  we 
launched  from  a  Httle  lawn  opposite  a  mill, 
the  sun  broke  forth  and  set  all  the  leaves 
shining  in  the  valley  of  the  Oise. 

The  river  was  swollen  with  the  long 
rains.  From  Vadencourt  all  the  way  to 
Origny,  it  ran  with  ever  quickening  speed, 
taking  fresh  heart  at  each  mile,  and  racing 
as  though  it  already  smelt  the  sea.  The 
water  was  yellow  and  turbulent,  swung 
with  an  angry  eddy  among  half-submerged 
willows,  and  made  an  angry  clatter  along 
stony  shores.  The  course  kept  turning 
and  turning  in  a  narrow  and  well-timbered 
valley.  Now,  the  river  would  approach  the 
side,  and  run  griding  along  the  chalky  base 
of  the  hill,  and  show  us  a  few  open  colza 
fields  among  the  trees.  Now,  it  would 
skirt  the  garden-walls  of  houses,  where 
we  might  catch  a  glimpse  through  a  door- 
way, and  see  a  priest  pacing  in  the  che- 
quered sunlight.  Again,  the  foliage  closed 
so  thickly  in  front,  that  there  seemed  to  be 
no  issue ;  only  a  thicket  of  willows,  over- 
topped by  elms  and   poplars,  under  which 


The  Oise  in  Flood  93 

the  river  ran  flush  and  fleet,  and  where  a 
kingfisher  flew  past  Hke  a  piece  of  the  blue 
sky.  On  these  different  manifestations, 
the  sun  poured  its  clear  and  catholic  looks. 
The  shadows  lay  as  solid  on  the  swift 
surface  of  the  stream  as  on  the  stable 
meadows.  The  light  sparkled  golden  in 
the  dancing  poplar  leaves,  and  brought 
the  hills  into  communion  with  our  eyes. 
And  all  the  while  the  river  never  stopped 
running  or  took  breath ;  and  the  reeds 
along  the  whole  valley  stood  shivering 
from  top  to  toe. 

There  should  be  some  myth  (but  if  there 
is,  I  know  it  not)  founded  on  the  shivering 
of  the  reeds.  There  are  not  many  things 
in  nature  more  striking  to  man's  eye.  It  is 
such  an  eloquent  pantomime  of  terror;  and 
to  see  such  a  number  of  terrified  creatures 
taking  sanctuary  in  every  nook  along  the 
shore,  is  enough  to  infect  a  silly  human 
with  alarm.  Perhaps  they  are  only  a-cold, 
and  no  wonder,  standing  waist  deep  in  the 
stream.  Or  perhaps  they  have  never  got 
accustomed  to  the  speed   and   fury  of  the 


94  An  Inland  Voyage 

river's  flux,  or  the  miracle  of  its  continuous 
body.  Pa7i  once  played  upon  their  fore- 
fathers ;  and  so,  by  the  hands  of  his  river, 
he  still  plays  upon  these  later  generations 
down  all  the  valley  of  the  Oise ;  and  plays 
the  same  air,  both  sweet  and  shrill,  to  tell 
us  of  the  beauty  and  the  terror  of  the 
world. 

The  canoe  was  like  a  leaf  in  the  current. 
It  took  it  up  and  shook  it,  and  carried  it 
masterfully  away,  like  a  Centaur  carrying 
off  a  nymph.  To  keep  some  command  on 
our  direction,  required  hard  and  diligent 
plying  of  the  paddle.  The  river  was  in 
such  a  hurry  for  the  sea !  Every  drop  of 
water  ran  in  a  panic,  like  as  many  people  in 
a  frightened  crowd.  But  what  crowd  was 
ever  so  numerous,  or  so  single-minded? 
All  the  objects  of  sight  went  by  at  a  dance 
measure;  the  eyesight  raced  with  the  rac- 
ing river;  the  exigencies  of  every  moment 
kept  the  pegs  screwed  so  tight,  that  our  be- 
ing quivered  like  a  well-tuned  instrument ; 
and  the  blood  shook  off  its  lethargy,  and 
trotted  through  all  the  highways  and  bye- 


The  Oisc  in  Flood  95 

ways  of  the  veins  and  arteries,  and  in 
and  out  of  the  heart,  as  if  circulation 
were  but  a  hoUday  journey,  and  not  the 
daily  moil  of  three  score  years  and  ten. 
The  reeds  might  nod  their  heads  in  warn- 
ing, and  with  tremulous  gestures,  tell 
how  the  river  was  as  cruel  as  it  was  strong 
and  cold,  and  how  death  lurked  in  the  eddy 
underneath  the  willows.  But  the  reeds  had 
to  stand  where  they  were  ;  and  those  who 
stand  still  are  always  timid  advisers.  As 
for  us,  we  could  have  shouted  aloud.  If 
this  lively  and  beautiful  river  were,  indeed, 
a  thing  of  death's  contrivance,  the  old 
ashen  rogue  had  famously  outwitted  him- 
self with  us.  I  was  living  three  to  the 
minute.  I  was  scoring  points  against  him 
every  stroke  of  my  paddle,  every  turn  of 
the  stream.  I  have  rarely  had  better  profit 
of  my  life. 

For  I  think  we  may  look  upon  our  little 
private  war  with  death  somewhat  in  this 
light.  If  a  man  knows  he  will  sooner  or 
later  be  robbed  upon  a  journey,  he  will 
have  a  bottle  of  the  best  in  every  inn,  and 


96  An  Inla7id  Voyage 

look  upon  all  his  extravagances  as  so  much 
gained  upon  the  thieves.  And  above  all, 
where  instead  of  simply  spending,  he  makes 
a  profitable  investment  for  some  of  his 
money,  when  it  will  be  out  of  risk  of  loss. 
So  every  bit  of  brisk  living,  and  above  all 
when  it  is  healthful,  is  just  so  much  gained 
upon  the  wholesale  filcher,  death.  We  shall 
have  the  less  in  our  pockets,  the  more  in 
our  stomach,  when  he  cries  stand  and  de- 
liver. A  swift  stream  is  a  favourite  artifice 
of  his,  and  one  that  brings  him  in  a  com- 
fortable thing  per  annum  ;  but  when  he 
and  I  come  to  settle  our  accounts,  I  shall 
whistle  in  his  face  for  these  hours  upon  the 
upper  Oise. 

Towards  afternoon  we  got  fairly  drunken 
with  the  sunshine  and  exhilaration  of  the 
pace.  We  could  no  longer  contain  our- 
selves and  our  content.  The  canoes  were 
too  small  for  us ;  we  must  be  out  and 
stretch  ourselves  on  shore.  And  so  in  a 
green  meadow  we  bestowed  our  limbs  on 
the  grass,  and  smoked  deifying  tobacco  and 
proclaimed  the  world  excellent.     It  was  the 


The  Oise  in  Flood  97 

last  good  hour  of  the  day,  and  I  dwell  upon 
it  with  extreme  complacency. 

On  one  side  of  the  valley,  high  upon  the 
chalky  summit  of  the  hill,  a  ploughman 
with  his  team  appeared  and  disappeared  at 
regular  intervals.  At  each  revelation  he 
stood  still  for  a  few  seconds  against  the 
sky :  for  all  the  world  (as  the  Cigarette 
declared)  like  a  toy  Burns  who  had  just 
ploughed  up  the  Moimtain  Daisy.  He  was 
the  only  living  thing  within  view,  unless 
we  are  to  count  the  river. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  valley  a  group 
of  red  roofs  and  a  belfry  showed  among  the 
foliage.  Thence  some  inspired  bell-ringer 
made  the  afternoon  musical  on  a  chime  of 
bells.  There  was  something  very  sweet 
and  taking  in  the  air  he  played  ;  and  we 
thought  we  had  never  heard  bells  speak  so 
intelligibly,  or  sing  so  melodiously,  as  these. 
It  must  have  been  to  some  such  measure 
that  the  spinners  and  the  young  maids 
sang,  "  Come  away.  Death,"  in  the  Shakes- 
pearian Illyria.  There  is  so  often  a  threat- 
ening note,  something  blatant  and  metallic, 
7 


98  An  Inland  Voyage 

in  the  voice  of  bells,  that  I  believe  we  have 
fully  more  pain  than  pleasure  from  hearing 
them  ;  but  these,  as  they  sounded  abroad, 
now  high,  now  low,  now  with  a  plaintive 
cadence  that  caught  the  ear  like  the  bur- 
then of  a  popular  song,  were  always  moder- 
ate and  tunable,  and  seemed  to  fall  in  with 
the  spirit  of  still,  rustic  places,  like  the 
noise  of  a  M'aterfall  or  the  babble  of  a  rook- 
ery in  spring.  I  could  have  asked  the  bell- 
ringer  for  his  blessing,  good,  sedate  old 
man,  who  swung  the  rope  so  gently  to 
the  time  of  his  meditations.  I  could  have 
blessed  the  priest  or  the  heritors,  or  who- 
ever may  be  concerned  with  such  affairs  in 
Fra7tce,  who  had  left  these  sweet  old  bells 
to  gladden  the  afternoon,  and  not  held 
meetings,  and  made  collections,  and  had 
their  names  repeatedly  printed  in  tlic  local 
paper,  to  rig  up  a  peal  of  brand-new, 
brazen,  Birminghain-hc3.r\.G6.  substitutes, 
who  should  bombard  their  sides  to  the 
provocation  of  a  brand-new  bell-ringer,  and 
fill  the  echoes  of  the  valley  with  terror  and 
riot. 


The  Oise  in  Flood  99 

At  last  the  bells  ceased,  and  with  their 
note  the  sun  withdrew.  The  piece  was  at 
an  end  ;  shadow  and  silence  possessed  the 
valley  of  the  Oise.  We  took  to  the  paddle 
with  glad  hearts,  like  people  who  have  sat 
out  a  noble  performance,  and  return  to 
work.  The  river  was  more  dangerous  here  ; 
it  ran  swifter,  the  eddies  were  more  sudden 
and  violent.  All  the  way  down  we  had 
had  our  fill  of  difificulties.  Sometimes  it 
was  a  weir  which  could  be  shot,  sometimes 
one  so  shallow  and  full  of  stakes  that  we 
must  withdraw  the  boats  from  the  water 
and  carry  them  round.  But  the  chief  sort 
of  obstacle  was  a  consequence  of  the  late 
high  winds.  Every  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  a  tree  had  fallen  across  the  river  and 
usually  involved  more  than  another  in  its 
fall.  Often  there  was  free  water  at  the 
end,  and  we  could  steer  round  the  leafy 
promontory  and  hear  the  water  sucking 
and  bubbling  among  the  twigs.  Often, 
again,  when  the  tree  reached  from  bank  to 
bank,  there  was  room,  by  l}'ing  close,  to 
shoot  througli   underneath,  canoe   and   all. 


loo  An  Inland  Voyage 

Sometimes  it  was  necessary  to  get  out 
upon  the  trunk  itself  and  pull  the  boats 
across  ;  and  sometimes,  where  the  stream 
was  too  impetuous  for  this,  there  was  noth- 
ing for  it  but  to  land  and  "  carry  over." 
This  made  a  fine  scries  of  accidents  in  the 
day's  career,  and  kept  us  aware  of  our- 
selves. 

Shortly  after  our  reembarkation,  while  I 
was  leading  by  a  long  way,  and  still  full  of 
a  noble,  exulting  spirit  in  honour  of  the 
sun,  the  swift  pace,  and  the  church  bells, 
the  river  made  one  of  its  leonine  pounces 
round  a  corner,  and  I  was  aware  of  another 
fallen  tree  within  a  stone-cast.  I  had  my 
backboard  down  in  a  trice,  and  aimed  for  a 
place  where  the  trunk  seemed  high  enough 
above  the  water,  and  the  branches  not  too 
thick  to  let  me  slip  below.  When  a  man 
has  just  vowed  eternal  brotherhood  with 
the  universe,  he  is  not  in  a  temper  to  take 
great  determinations  coolly,  and  this,  which 
might  have  been  a  very  important  deter- 
mination for  me,  had  not  been  taken  under 
a  happy  star.     The  tree  caught   me  about 


The  Oise  in  Flood  loi 

the  chest,  and  while  I  was  yet  struggling 
to  make  less  of  myself  and  get  through, 
the  river  took  the  matter  out  of  my  hands, 
and  bereaved  me  of  my  boat.  The  Are- 
thusa  swung  round  broadside  on,  leaned 
over,  ejected  so  much  of  me  as  still  re- 
mained on  board,  and  thus  disencumbered, 
whipped  under  the  tree,  righted,  and  went 
merrily  away  down  stream. 

I  do  not  know  how  long  it  was  before  I 
scrambled  on  to  the  tree  to  which  I  was 
left  clinging,  but  it  was  longer  than  I  cared 
about.  My  thoughts  were  of  a  grave  and 
almost  sombre  character,  but  I  still  clung 
to  my  paddle.  The  stream  ran  away  with 
my  heels  as  fast  as  I  could  pull  up  my 
shoulders,  and  I  seemed,  by  the  weight,  to 
have  all  the  water  of  the  Oisc  in  my  trouser 
pockets.  You  can  never  know,  till  you  try 
it,  what  a  dead  pull  a  river  makes  against  a 
man.  Death  himself  had  me  by  the  heels, 
for  this  was  his  last  ambuscado,  and  he 
must  now  join  personally  in  the  fray.  And 
still  I  held  to  my  paddle.  At  last  I 
dragged  myself  on  to  my  stomach  on  the 


TJNTVKR.SITY  OF  TATTPOnNTA 
SANTA  BARiiARA  COLLEGE  LlIiliARY 


I02  An  Inland  V^oyage 

trunk,  and  lay  there  a  breathless  sop,  with 
a  mingled  sense  of  humour  and  injustice. 
A  poor  figure  I  must  have  presented  to 
Burns  upon  the  hill-top  with  his  team. 
But  there  was  the  paddle  in  my  hand.  On 
my  tomb,  if  ever  I  have  one,  I  mean  to 
get  these  words  inscribed :  "  He  clung  to 
his  paddle." 

The  Cigarette  had  gone  past  a  while 
before  ;  for,  as  I  might  have  observed,  if 
I  had  been  a  little  less  pleased  with  the 
universe  at  the  moment,  there  was  a  clear 
way  round  the  tree-top  at  the  farther  side. 
He  had  offered  his  services  to  haul  me  out, 
but  as  I  was  then  already  on  my  elbows,  I 
had  declined,  and  sent  him  down  stream 
after  the  truant  Arethiisa.  The  stream 
was  too  rapid  for  a  man  to  mount  with 
one  canoe,  let  alone  two,  upon  his  hands. 
So  I  crawled  along  the  trunk  to  shore,  and 
proceeded  down  the  meadows  by  the  river 
side.  ([  was  so  cold  that  my  heart  was 
sore,  j  I  had  now  an  idea  of  my  own,  why 
the  reeds  so  bitterly  shivered.  I  could 
have   given    any  of   them    a   lesson.      The 


The  Oise  in  Flood  103 

Cigarette  remarked  facetiously,  that  he 
thought  I  was  "  taking  exercise  "  as  I  drew 
near,  until  he  made  out  for  certain  that  1 
was  only  twittering  with  cold.  I  had  a 
rub  down  with  a  towel,  and  donned  a  dry 
suit  from  the  india-rubber  bag.  But  I 
was  not  my  own  man  again  for  the  rest  of 
the  voyage.  I  had  a  queasy  sense  that  I 
wore  my  last  dry  clothes  upon  my  body. 
The  struggle  had  tired  me ;  and  perhaps, 
whether  I  knew  it  or  not,  I  was  a  little 
dashed  in  spirit.  The  devouring  element 
in  the  universe  had  leaped  out  against  me, 
in  this  green  valley  quickened  by  a  run- 
ning stream.  The  bells  were  all  very 
pretty  in  their  way,  but  I  had  heard  some 
of  the  hollow  notes  of  Pans  music.  Would 
the  wicked  river  drag  mc  down  by  the  heels, 
indeed  ?  and  look  so  beautiful  all  the  time  ? 
Nature's  good-humour  was  only  skin-deep 
after  all. 

There  was  still  a  long  way  to  go  by  the 
winding  course  of  the  stream,  and  darkness 
had  fallen,  and  a  late  bell  was  ringing  in 
Origny  Saintc-Bcnoitc,  when  we  arrived. 


ORIGNY   SAINTE-BENOITE 
A  BY-DAY 

T^HE  next  day  was  Sunday^  and  the 
church  bells  had  little  rest ;  indeed 
I  do  not  think  I  remember  anywhere  else 
so  great  a  choice  of  services  as  were  here 
offered  to  the  devout.  And  while  the 
bells  made  merry  in  the  sunshine,  all  the 
world  with  his  dog  was  out  shooting  among 
the  beets  and  colza. 

In  the  morning  a  hawker  and  his  wife 
went  down  the  street  at  a  foot-pace,  sing- 
ing to  a  very  slow,  lamentable  music  "  O 
France,  ines  amours^  It  brought  every- 
body to  the  door ;  and  when  our  landlady 
called  in  the  man  to  buy  the  words,  he 
had  not  a  copy  of  them  left.  She  was 
not  the  first  nor  the  second  who  had  been 
taken  with  the  song.  There  is  something 
very   pathetic    in    the   love   of    the  French 


Origny  Samte-Denotte  105 

people,  since  the  war,  for  dismal  patriotic 
music-making.  I  have  watched  a  forester 
from  Alsace  while  some  one  was  singing 
"  Les  malheurs  de  la  France,''  at  a  baptismal 
party  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Fontaine- 
bleau.  He  arose  from  the  table  and  took 
his  son  aside,  close  by  where  I  was  stand- 
ing. "  Listen,  listen,"  he  said,  bearing  on 
the  boy's  shoulder,  "  and  remember  this, 
my  son."  A  little  after  he  went  out  into 
the  garden  suddenly,  and  I  could  hear  him 
sobbing  in  the  darkness. 

The  humiliation  of  their  arms  and  the 
loss  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  made  a  sore 
pull  on  the  endurance  of  this  sensitive 
people  ;  and  their  hearts  are  still  hot,  not 
so  much  against  Germany  as  against  the 
Empire.  In  what  other  country  will  you 
find  a  patriotic  ditty  bring  all  the  world 
into  the  street  ?  But  affliction  heightens 
love ;  and  we  shall  never  know  we  are 
Englishmen  until  we  have  lost  India.  In- 
dependent America  is  still  the  cross  of 
my  existence  ;  I  cannot  think  of  Farmer 
George  without  abhorrence  ;    and    I   never 


io6  An  Inland   ]'oyage 

feel  more  warmly  to  my  own  land  than 
when  I  see  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  re- 
member what  our  empire  might  have  been. 
The  hawker's  little  book,  which  I  pur- 
chased, was  a  curious  mixture.  Side  by 
side  with  the  flippant,  rowdy  nonsense  of 
the  Paris  music-halls,  there  were  many  pas- 
toral pieces,  not  without  a  touch  of  poetry, 
I  thought,  and  instinct  with  the  brave  in- 
dependence of  the  poorer  class  in  France. 
There  you  might  read  how  the  wood- 
cutter gloried  in  his  axe,  and  the  gardener 
scorned  to  be  ashamed  of  his  spade.  It 
was  not  very  well  written,  this  poetry  of 
labour,  but  the  pluck  of  the  sentiment 
redeemed  what  was  weak  or  wordy  in  the 
expression.  The  martial  and  the  patriotic 
pieces,  on  the  other  hand,  were  tearful, 
womanish  productions  one  and  all.  The 
poet  had  passed  under  the  Caudine  Forks ; 
he  sang  for  an  army  visiting  the  tomb  of 
its  old  renown,  with  arms  reversed  ;  and 
sang  not  of  victory,  but  of  death.  There 
was  a  number  in  the  hawker's  collection 
called  Conscrits  Frangais,  which   may  rank 


Origny  Sainte-Bcnolte  107 

among  the  most  dissuasive  war-lyrics  on 
record.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  fight 
at  all  in  such  a  spirit.  The  bravest  con- 
script would  turn  pale  if  such  a  ditty  were 
struck  up  beside  him  on  the  morning  of 
battle ;  and  whole  regiments  would  pile 
their  arms  to  its  tune. 

If  Fletcher  of  Salto?in  is  in  the  right  about 
the  influence  of  national  songs,  you  would 
say  France  was  come  to  a  poor  pass.  But 
the  thing  will  work  its  own  cure,  and  a 
sound-hearted  and  courageous  people  weary 
at  length  of  snivelling  over  their  disasters. 
Already  Paul  De'roulcde  has  written  some 
manly  military  verses.  There  is  not  much 
of  the  trumpet  note  in  them,  perhaps,  to 
stir  a  man's  heart  in  his  bosom  ;  they  lack 
the  lyrical  elation,  and  move  slowly  ;  but 
they  are  written  in  a  grave  honourable,  sto- 
ical spirit,  which  should  carry  soldiers  far 
in  a  good  cause.  One  feels  as  if  one  would 
like  to  trust  Deroidcde  with  something.  It 
will  be  happy  if  he  can  so  far  inoculate  his 
fellow  countrymen  that  they  may  be  trusted 
with  their  own  future.     And  in  the  mean- 


io8  An  I7ila7id  Voyage 

time,  here  is  an  antidote  to  "  French  Con- 
scripts" and  much  other  doleful  versification. 

We  had  left  the  boats  over-night  in  the 
custody  of  one  whom  we  shall  call  Carni- 
val. I  did  not  properly  catch  his  name, 
and  perhaps  that  was  not  unfortunate  for 
him,  as  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  hand  him 
down  with  honour  to  posterity.  To  this 
person's  premises  we  strolled  in  the  course 
of  the  day,  and  found  quite  a  little  deputa- 
tion inspecting  the  canoes.  There  was  a 
stout  gentleman  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
river,  which  he  seemed  eager  to  impart. 
There  was  a  very  elegant  young  gentleman 
in  a  black  coat,  with  a  smattering  of  Eng- 
lish, who  led  the  talk  at  once  to  the  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  Boat  Race.  And  then  there 
were  three  handsome  girls  from  fifteen  to 
twenty ;  and  an  old  gentleman  in  a  blouse, 
with  no  teeth  to  speak  of,  and  a  strong 
country  accent.  Quite  the  pick  of  Origny, 
I  should  suppose. 

The  Cigarette  had  some  mysteries  to  per- 
form with  his  rigging  in  the  coach-house  ; 
so  I  was  left  to  do  the  parade  single-handed. 


Origny  Sainte-Benoite  109 

I  found  myself  very  much  of  a  hero  whether 
I  would  or  not.  The  girls  were  full  of  little 
shudderings  over  the  dangers  of  our  jour- 
ney. And  I  thought  it  would  be  ungallant 
not  to  take  my  cue  from  the  ladies.  My 
mishap  of  yesterday,  told  in  an  off-hand 
way,  produced  a  deep  sensation.  It  was 
Othello  over  again,  with  no  less  than  three 
Desdemonas  and  a  sprinkling  of  sympathetic 
senators  in  the  background.  Never  were 
the  canoes  more  flattered,  or  flattered  more 
adroitly. 

"  It  is  like  a  violin,"  cried  one  of  the  girls 
in  an  ecstasy. 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  word,  mademoi- 
selle," said  I.  "  All  the  more  since  there 
are  people  who  call  out  to  me,  that  it  is  like 
a  cofifin." 

"  O  !  but  it  is  really  like  a  violin.  It  is 
finished  like  a  violin,"  she  went  on. 

"  And  polished  like  a  violin,"  added  a 
senator. 

"  One  has  only  to  stretch  the  cords,"  con- 
cluded another,  "  and  then  tum-tumty-tum  " 
— he  imitated  the  result  with  spirit. 


no  An  Inland   l^oyage 

Was  not  this  a  graceful  little  ovation  ? 
Where  this  people  finds  the  secret  of  its 
pretty  speeches,  I  cannot  imagine  ;  unless 
the  secret  should  be  no  other  than  a  sincere 
desire  to  please  ?  But  then  no  disgrace 
is  attached  in  Frajice  to  saying  a  thing 
neatly ;  whereas  in  England,  to  talk  like 
a  book  is  to  give  in  one's  resignation  to 
society. 

The  old  gentleman  in  the  blouse  stole 
into  the  coach-house,  and  somewhat  irrele- 
vantly informed  the  Cigarette  that  he  was 
the  father  of  the  three  girls  and  four  more : 
quite  an  exploit  for  a  Frenchman. 

"You  are  very  fortunate,"  answered  the 
Cigarette  politely. 

And  the  old  gentleman,  having  appar- 
ently gained  his  point,  stole  away  again. 

We  all  got  very  friendly  together.  The 
girls  proposed  to  start  with  us  on  the  mor- 
row, if  you  please  !  And  jesting  apart,  every 
one  was  anxious  to  know  the  hour  of  our 
departure.  Now,  when  you  are  going  to 
crawl  into  your  canoe  from  a  bad  launch, 
a  crowd,  however  friendly,  is  undesirable ; 


Origny  Saint e-Benoite  1 1 1 

and  so  we  told  them  not  before  twelve, 
and  mentally  determined  to  be  off  by  ten 
at  latest. 

Towards  eveninsf,  we  went  abroad  again 
to  post  some  letters.  It  was  cool  and 
pleasant ;  the  long  village  was  quite  empty, 
except  for  one  or  two  urchins  who  followed 
us  as  they  might  have  followed  a  menag- 
erie ;  the  hills  and  the  tree-tops  looked  in 
from  all  sides  through  the  clear  air ;  and 
the  bells  were  chiming  for  yet  another 
service. 

Suddenly,  we  sighted  the  three  girls 
standing,  with  a  fourth  sister,  in  front  of 
a  shop  on  the  wide  selvage  of  the  roadway. 
We  had  been  very  merry  with  them  a  little 
while  ago,  to  be  sure.  But  what  was  the 
etiquette  of  Origny  ?  Had  it  been  a  coun- 
try road,  of  course  we  should  have  spoken 
to  them ;  but  here,  under  the  eyes  of  all 
the  gossips,  ought  we  to  do  even  as  much 
as  bow  ?     I  consulted  the  Cigarette. 

"  Look,"  said  he. 

I  looked.  There  were  the  four  girls  on 
the  same  spot ;    but   now  four  backs  were 


112  An  Inland  Voyage 

turned  to  us,  very  upright  and  conscious. 
Corporal  Modesty  had  given  the  word  of 
command,  and  the  well-disciplined  picket 
had  gone  right-about-face  like  a  single  per- 
son. They  maintained  this  formation  all 
the  while  we  were  in  sight ;  but  we  heard 
them  tittering  among  themselves,  and  the 
girl  whom  we  had  not  met,  laughed  with 
open  mouth,  and  even  looked  over  her 
shoulder  at  the  enemy.  I  wonder  was  it 
altogether  modesty  after  all?  or  in  part  a 
sort  of  country  provocation  ? 

As  we  were  returning  to  the  inn,  we  be- 
held something  floating  in  the  ample  field 
of  golden  evening  sky,  above  the  chalk 
cliffs  and  the  trees  that  grow  along  their 
summit.  It  was  too  high  up,  too  large  and 
too  steady  for  a  kite  ;  and  as  it  was  dark,  it 
could  not  be  a  star.  For  although  a  star 
were  as  black  as  ink  and  as  rugged  as  a 
walnut,  so  amply  does  the  sun  bathe 
heaven  with  radiance,  that  it  would  sparkle 
like  a  point  of  light  for  us.  The  village 
was  dotted  with  people  with  their  heads  in 
air  ;  and  the  children  were  in  a  bustle  all 


Origny  Sainte-Benoite  1 1 3 

along  the  street  and  far  up  the  straight 
road  that  climbs  the  hill,  where  we  could 
still  see  them  running  in  loose  knots.  It 
was  a  balloon,  we  learned,  which  had  left 
Saint  Qucntin  at  half-past  five  that  even- 
ing. Mighty  composedly  the  majority  of 
the  grown  people  took  it.  But  we  were 
English,  and  were  soon  running  up  the  hill 
with  the  best.  Being  travellers  ourselves 
in  a  small  way,  we  would  fain  have  seen 
these  other  travellers  alight. 

The  spectacle  was  over  by  the  time  we 
gained  the  top  of  the  hill.  All  the  gold 
had  withered  out  of  the  sky,  and  the  bal- 
loon had  disappeared.  Whither?  I  ask 
myself;  caught  up  into  the  seventh  heaven? 
or  come  safely  to  land  somewhere  in  that 
blue  uneven  distance,  into  which  the  road- 
way dipped  and  melted  before  our  eyes  ? 
Probably  the  aeronauts  were  already  warm- 
ing themselves  at  a  farm  chimney,  for  they 
say  it  is  cold  in  these  unhomely  regions  of 
the  air.  The  night  fell  swiftly.  Roadside 
trees  and  disappointed  sightseers,  returning 
through   the  meadows,  stood  out   in  black 


114  An  Inland  Voyage 

against  a  margin  of  low  red  sunset.  It  was 
cheerfuller  to  face  the  other  way,  and  so 
down  the  hill  we  went,  with  a  full  moon, 
the  colour  of  a  melon,  swinging  high  above 
the  wooded  valley,  and  the  white  cliffs  be- 
hind us  faintly  reddened  by  the  fire  of  the 
chalk  kilns. 

The  lamps  were  lighted,  and  the  salads 
were  being  made  in  Origny  Sainte-BcnoUe 
by  the  river. 


ORIGNY   SAINTE-BENOITE 

THE  COMPANY  AT  TABLE 

A  LTHOUGH  we  came  late  for  dinner, 
the  company  at  table  treated  us  to 
sparkling  wine.  "  That  is  how  we  are  in 
France^'  said  one.  "  Those  who  sit  down 
with  us  are  our  friends."  And  the  rest 
applauded. 

They  were  three  altogether,  and  an  odd 
trio  to  pass  the  Sunday  with. 

Two  of  them  were  guests  like  ourselves, 
both  men  of  the  north.  One  ruddy,  and  of 
a  full  habit  of  body,  with  copious  black 
hair  and  beard,  the  intrepid  hunter  of 
France^  who  thought  nothing  so  small,  not 
even  a  lark  or  a  minnow,  but  he  might  vin- 
dicate his  prowess  by  its  capture.  For  such 
a  great,  healthy  man,  his  hair  flourishing 
like  Samson  s,  his  arteries  running  buckets 
of  red  blood,  to  boast  of  these  infinitesimal 


ii6  An  Inland  Voyage 

exploits,  produced  a  feeling  of  dispropor- 
tion in  the  world,  as  when  a  steam-hammer 
is  set  to  cracking  nuts.  The  other  was 
a  quiet,  subdued  person,  blond  and  lym- 
phatic and  sad,  with  something  the  look 
of  a  Dane  :  "  Tristes  tctes  de  Danois  /  "  as 
Gaston  Lafenestre  used  to  say. 

I  must  not  let  that  name  go  by  without 
a  word  for  the  best  of  all  good  fellows  now 
gone  down  into  the  dust.  We  shall  never 
ag-ain  see  Gaston  in  his  forest  costume — he 
was  Gaston  with  all  the  world,  in  affection, 
not  in  disrespect — nor  hear  him  wake  the 
echoes  of  Fontainebleau  with  the  woodland 
horn.  Never  again  shall  his  kind  smile 
put  peace  among  all  races  of  artistic  men, 
and  make  the  Englishman  at  home  in 
France.  Never  more  shall  the  sheep,  who 
were  not  more  innocent  at  heart  than  he, 
sit  all  unconsciously  for  his  industrious 
pencil.  He  died  too  early,  at  the  very 
moment  when  he  was  beginning  to  put 
forth  fresh  sprouts,  and  blossom  into  some- 
thing worthy  of  himself  ;  and  yet  none  who 
knew  him  will  think   he  lived   in  vain.     1 


07'igny  Sainte-Benoite  1 1 7 

never  knew  a  man  so  little,  for  whom  yet 
I  had  so  much  affection  ;  and  I  find  it  a 
good  test  of  others,  how  much  they  had 
learned  to  understand  and  value  him.  His 
was  indeed  a  good  influence  in  life  while 
he  was  still  among  us  ;  he  had  a  fresh 
laugh,  it  did  you  good  to  see  him  ;  and 
however  sad  he  may  have  been  at  heart,  he 
always  bore  a  bold  and  cheerful  counte- 
nance, and  took  fortune's  worst  as  it  were 
the  showers  of  spring.  But  now  his 
mother  sits  alone  by  the  side  of  Fontaine- 
bleau  woods,  where  he  gathered  mushrooms 
in  his  hardy  and  penurious  youth. 

Many  of  his  pictures  found  their  way 
across  the  channel  :  besides  those  which 
were  stolen,  when  a  dastardly  Yankee  left 
him  alone  in  London  with  two  English 
pence,  and  perhaps  twice  as  many  words  of 
English.  If  anyone  who  reads  these  lines 
should  have  a  scene  of  sheep,  in  the  man- 
ner of  Jacques,  with  this  fine  creature's  sig- 
nature, let  him  tell  himself  that  one  of  the 
kindest  and  bravest  of  men  has  lent  a  hand 
to    decorate    his    lodging.     There    may  be 


ii8  An  Inland  Voyage 

better  pictures  in  the  National  Gallery ; 
but  not  a  painter  among  the  generations 
had  a  better  heart.  Precious  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  of  humanity,  the  Psalms  tell  us, 
is  the  death  of  his  saints.  It  had  need  to 
be  precious ;  for  it  is  very  costly,  when  by 
the  stroke,  a  mother  is  left  desolate,  and  the 
peacemaker,  and  peace-looker,  of  a  whole 
society  is  laid  in  the  ground  with  Ccesar 
and  the  Twelve  Apostles. 

There  is  something  lacking  among  the 
oaks  of  Fontaineblcau  ;  and  when  the  des- 
sert comes  in  at  Barbizon,  people  look  to 
the  door  for  a  figure  that  is  gone. 

The  third  of  our  companions  at  Origny 
was  no  less  a  person  than  the  landlady's 
husband:  not  properly  the  landlord,  since 
he  worked  himself  in  a  factory  during  the 
day,  and  came  to  his  own  house  at  evening 
as  a  guest :  a  man  worn  to  skin  and  bone 
by  perpetual  excitement,  with  baldish  head, 
sharp  features,  and  swift,  shining  eyes.  On 
Saturday,  describing  some  paltry  adventure 
at  a  duck-hunt,  he  broke  a  plate  into  a 
3Core  of  fragments.     Whenever  he  made  a 


Origny  Sainte-BenoUe  119 

remark,  he  would  look  all  round  the  tabic, 
with  his  chin  raised,  and  a  spark  of  green 
light  in  either  eye,  seeking  approval.  His 
wife  appeared  now  and  again  in  the  door- 
way of  the  room,  where  she  was  superin- 
tending dinner,  with  a  '^  Henri,  you  forget 
yourself,"  or  a  ''Henri,  you  can  surely  talk 
without  making  such  a  noise."  Indeed, 
that  was  what  the  honest  fellow  could  not 
do.  On  the  most  trifling  matter,  his  eyes 
kindled,  his  fist  visited  the  table,  and  his 
voice  rolled  abroad  in  changeful  thunder. 
I  never  saw  such  a  petard  of  a  man ;  I  think 
the  devil  was  in  him.  He  had  two  favorite 
expressions  :  "  it  is  logical,"  or  illogical  as 
the  case  might  be  :  and  this  other,  thrown 
out  with  a  certain  bravado,  as  a  man  might 
unfurl  a  banner,  at  the  beginning  of  many 
a  long  and  sonorous  story :  "  I  am  a  prole- 
tarian, you  sec."  Indeed,  wc  saw  it  very 
well.  God  forbid,  that  ever  I  should  find 
him  handling  a  gun  in  Paris  streets.  That 
will  not  be  a  good  moment  for  the  general 
public. 

I    thought    his    two    phrases    very    much 


I20  A  71  Inland  Voyage 

represented  the  good  and  evil  of  his  class, 
and  to  some  extent  of  his  country.  It  is 
a  strong  thing  to  say  what  one  is,  and  not 
be  ashamed  of  it  ;  even  although  it  be  in 
doubtful  taste  to  repeat  the  statement  too 
often  in  one  evening.  I  should  not  admire 
it  in  a  duke,  of  course  ;  but  as  times  go, 
the  trait  is  honourable  in  a  workman.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  at  all  a  strong 
thing  to  put  one's  reliance  upon  logic  ;  and 
our  own  logic  particularly,  for  it  is  generally 
wrong.  We  never  know  where  we  are  to 
end,  if  once  we  begin  following  words  or 
doctors.  There  is  an  upright  stock  in  a 
man's  own  heart,  that  is  trustier  than  any 
syllogism  ;  and  the  eyes,  and  the  sympa- 
thies and  appetites,  know  a  thing  or  two 
that  have  never  yet  been  stated  in  contro- 
versy. Reasons  are  as  plentiful  as  black- 
berries ;  and  like  fisticuffs,  they  serve  im- 
partially with  all  sides.  Doctrines  do  not 
stand  or  fall  by  their  proofs,  and  are  only 
logical  in  so  far  as  they  are  cleverly  put. 
An  able  controversialist  no  more  than  an 
able  general  demonstrates  the  justice  of  his 


Origny  Sainte-Benoite  121 

cause.  But  France  is  all  gone  wandering 
after  one  or  two  big  words ;  it  will  take 
some  time  before  they  can  be  satisfied  that 
they  are  no  more  than  words,  however  big ; 
and  when  once  that  is  done,  they  will  per- 
haps find  logic  less  diverting. 

The  conversation  opened  with  details  of 
the  day's  shooting.  When  all  the  sportsmen 
of  a  village  shoot  over  the  village  territory 
pro  indiviso,  it  is  plain  that  many  questions 
of  etiquette  and  priority  must  arise. 

"  Here  now,"  cried  the  landlord,  bran- 
dishing a  plate,  "  here  is  a  field  of  beet-root. 
Well.  Here  am  I  then.  I  advance,  do 
I  not?  Eh  bien  !  sacr ist i, ''  dind  the  state- 
ment, waxing  louder,  rolls  off  into  a  rever- 
beration of  oaths,  the  speaker  glaring  about 
for  sympathy,  and  everybody  nodding  his 
head  to  him  in  the  name  of  peace. 

The  ruddy  Northman  told  some  tales  of 
his  own  prowess  in  keeping  order:  notably 
one  of  a  Marquis. 

"  Marquis,"  I  said,  "  if  you  take  another 
step  I  fire  upon  you.  You  have  committed 
a  dirtiness.  Marquis." 


122  All  hila7td  Voyage 

Whereupon,  it  appeared,  the  Marquis 
touched  his  cap   and  withdrew. 

The  landlord  applauded  noisily.  "It 
was  well  done,"  he  said.  "  He  did  all  that 
he  could.  He  admitted  he  was  wrong." 
And  then  oath  upon  oath.  He  was  no 
marquis-lover  either,  but  he  had  a  sense 
of  justice  in  him,  this  proletarian  host  of 
ours. 

From  the  matter  of  hunting,  the  talk 
veered  into  a  general  comparison  of  Paris 
and  the  country.  The  proletarian  beat 
the  table  like  a  drum  in  praise  of  Paris. 
"What  is  Paris?  Paris  is  the  cream  of 
France.  There  are  no  Parisians :  it  is  you 
and  I  and  everybody  who  are  Parisians. 
A  man  has  eighty  chances  per  cent,  to  get 
on  in  the  world  in  Paris!'  And  he  drew  a 
vivid  sketch  of  the  workman  in  a  den  no 
bigger  than  a  dog-hutch,  making  articles 
that  were  to  go  all  over  the  world.  "  Eh 
bien,  guoi,  cest  magnifique,  ga  J  "  cried  he. 

The  sad  Northman  interfered  in  praise  of 
a  peasant's  life ;  he  thought  Paris  bad  for 
men  and  women  ;  "  centralisation,"  said  he — 


Oi^igny  Sainte-BenoUe  123 

But  the  landlord  was  at  his  throat  in  a 
moment.  It  was  all  logical,  he  showed 
him  ;  and  all  magnificent.  "  What  a  spec- 
tacle !  What  a  glance  for  an  eye  !  "  And 
the  dishes  reeled  upon  the  table  under  a 
cannonade  of  blows. 

Seeking  to  make  peace,  I  threw  in  a  word 
in  praise  of  the  liberty  of  opinion  in  France. 
I  could  hardly  have  shot  more  amiss. 
There  was  an  instant  silence,  and  a  great 
wagging  of  significant  heads.  They  did 
not  fancy  the  subject,  it  was  plain ;  but 
they  gave  me  to  understand  that  the  sad 
Northman  was  a  martyr  on  account  of  his 
views.  "  Ask  him  a  bit,"  said  they,  "  Just 
ask  him." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  he  in  his  quiet  way,  an- 
swering me,  although  I  had  not  spoken, 
"  1  am  afraid  there  is  less  liberty  of  opinion 
in  France  than  you  may  imagine."  And 
with  that  he  dropped  his  eyes,  and  seemed 
to  consider  the  subject  at  an  end. 

Our  curiosity  was  mightily  excited  at 
this.  How,  or  why,  or  when,  was  this  lym- 
phatic bagman  martyred?     We  concluded 


124  An  Inland  Voyage 

at  once  it  was  on  some  religious  question, 
and  brushed  up  our  memories  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, which  were  principally  drawn  from 
Poes  horrid  story,  and  the  sermon  in  Tris- 
tram Shandy,  I  believe. 

On  the  morrow  we  had  an  opportunity 
of  going  further  into  the  question  ;  for 
when  we  rose  very  early  to  avoid  a  sympa- 
thising deputation  at  our  departure,  we 
found  the  hero  up  before  us.  He  was 
breaking  his  fast  on  white  wine  and  raw 
onions,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  character 
of  martyr,  I  conclude.  We  had  a  long  con- 
versation, and  made  out  what  we  wanted 
in  spite  of  his  reserve.  But  here  was  a 
truly  curious  circumstance.  It  seems  pos- 
sible for  two  Scotchmen  and  a  Frenchman 
to  discuss  during  a  long  half  hour,  and  each 
nationality  have  a  difTerent  idea  in  view 
throughout.  It  was  not  till  the  very  end 
that  we  discovered  his  heresy  had  been 
political,  or  that  he  suspected  our  mistake. 
The  terms  and  spirit  in  which  he  spoke  of 
his  political  beliefs  were,  in  our  eyes,  suited 
to  religious  beliefs.     And  vice  versd. 


Origny  Sainte-BenoUe  125 

Nothing  could  be  more  characteristic  of 
the  two  countries.  PoHtics  are  the  religion 
of  France ;  as  Nanty  Ewart  would  have 
said,  "  A  d — d  bad  religion  ;  "  while  we,  at 
home,  keep  most  of  our  bitterness  for  little 
differences  about  a  hymn-book,  or  a  Hebrew 
word  which,  perhaps,  neither  of  the  parties 
can  translate.  And  perhaps  the  miscon- 
ception is  typical  of  many  others  that  may 
never  be  cleared  up :  not  only  between 
people  of  different  race,  but  between  those 
of  different  sex. 

As  for  our  friend's  martyrdom,  he  was  a 
Communist,  or  perhaps  only  a  Communard, 
which  is  a  very  different  thing ;  and  had 
lost  one  or  more  situations  in  consequence. 
I  think  he  had  also  been  rejected  in  mar- 
riage ;  but  perhaps  he  had  a  sentimental 
way  of  considering  business  which  deceived 
me.  He  was  a  mild,  gentle  creature,  any- 
way ;  and  I  hope  he  has  got  a  better  situa- 
tion, and  married  a  more  suitable  wife  since 
then. 


DOWN   THE   OISE:    TO   MOY 

f^ARNIVAL  notoriously  cheated  us  at 
first.  Finding  us  easy  in  our  ways,  he 
regretted  having  let  us  off  so  cheaply  ;  and 
taking  me  aside,  told  me  a  cock-and-bull 
story  with  the  moral  of  another  five  francs 
for  the  narrator.  The  thing  was  palpably 
absurd  ;  but  I  paid  up,  and  at  once  dropped 
all  friendliness  of  manner,  and  kept  him  in 
his  place  as  an  inferior  with  freezing  British 
dignity.  He  saw  in  a  moment  that  he  had 
gone  too  far,  and  killed  a  willing  horse ; 
his  face  fell  ;  I  am  sure  he  would  have  re- 
funded if  he  could  only  have  thought  of 
a  decent  pretext.  He  wished  me  to  drink 
with  him,  but  I  would  none  of  his  drinks. 
He  grew  pathetically  tender  in  his  profes- 
sions ;  but  I  walked  beside  him  in  silence 
or  answered  him  in  stately  courtesies  ;  and 
when  we  got  to  the  landing-place,  passed 
the  word  in  English  slang  to  the  Cigarette. 


Down  the  Oisc :  to  Moy        127 

In  spite  of  the  false  scent  we  had  thrown 
out  the  day  before,  there  must  have  been 
fifty  people  about  the  bridge.  We  were  as 
pleasant  as  we  could  be  with  all  but  Car- 
nivat.  We  said  good-bye,  shaking  hands 
with  the  old  gentleman  who  knew  the  river 
and  the  young  gentleman  who  had  a  smat- 
tering of  English  ;  but  never  a  word  for 
Carnival.  Poor  Carnivat,  here  was  a  hu- 
miliation. He  who  had  been  so  much  iden- 
tified with  the  canoes,  who  had  given  orders 
in  our  name,  who  had  shown  off  the  boats 
and  even  the  boatmen  like  a  private  exhi- 
bition of  his  own,  to  be  now  so  publicly 
shamed  by  the  lions  of  his  caravan  !  I 
never  saw  anybody  look  more  crest-fallen 
than  he.  He  hung  in  the  background, 
coming  timidly  forward  ever  and  again  as 
he  thought  he  saw  some  symptom  of  a  re- 
lenting humour,  and  falling  hurriedly  back 
when  he  encountered  a  cold  stare.  Let  us 
hope  it  will  be  a  lesson  to  him. 

I  would  not  have  mentioned  CarnivaV s 
peccadillo  had  not  the  thing  been  so  un- 
common   in   France.      This,    for    instance, 


128  All  Inland  Voyage 

was  the  only  case  of  dishonesty  or  even 
sharp  practice  in  our  whole  voyage.  We 
talk  very  much  about  our  honesty  in  Eng- 
lajid.  It  is  a  good  rule  to  be  on  your  guard 
wherever  you  hear  great  professions  about 
a  very  little  piece  of  virtue.  If  the  Eng- 
lish could  only  hear  how  they  are  spoken 
of  abroad,  they  might  confine  themselves 
for  a  while  to  remedying  the  fact ;  and  per- 
haps even  when  that  was  done,  give  us 
fewer  of  their  airs. 

The  young  ladies,  the  graces  of  Origny, 
were  not  present  at  our  start,  but  when  we 
got  round  to  the  second  bridge,  behold 
it  was  black  with  sight-seers !  We  were 
loudly  cheered,  and  for  a  good  way  below, 
young  lads  and  lasses  ran  along  the  bank 
still  cheering.  What  with  current  and  pad- 
dling, we  were  flashing  along  like  swallows. 
It  was  no  joke  to  keep  up  with  us  upon 
the  woody  shore.  But  the  girls  picked  up 
their  skirts,  as  if  they  were  sure  they  had 
good  ankles,  and  followed  until  their 
breath  was  out.  The  last  to  weary  were 
the  three  graces  and  a  couple  of  compan- 


Down  the  Oise :  to  Moy        129 

ions;  and  just  as  they  too  had  had  enough, 
the  foremost  of  the  three  leaped  upon  a 
tree  stump  and  kissed  her  hand  to  the 
canoeists.  Not  Diana  herself,  although 
this  was  more  of  a  Venus  after  all,  could 
have  done  a  graceful  thing  more  grace- 
fully. "  Come  back  again  !  "  she  cried  ;  and 
all  the  others  echoed  her ;  and  the  hills 
about  Origny  repeated  the  words,  "  Come 
back."  But  the  river  had  us  round  an  angle 
in  a  twinkling,  and  we  were  alone  with 
the  green  trees  and  running  water. 

Comeback?  There  is  no  coming  back, 
young  ladies,  on  the  impetuous  stream  of 
life. 

The  merchant  bows  unto  the  seaman's  star, 
The  ploughman  from  the  sun  his  season  takes. 

And  we  must  all  set  our  pocket  watches  by 
the  clock  of  fate.  There  is  a  headlong, 
forthright  tide,  that  bears  away  man  with 
his  fancies  like  a  straw,  and  runs  fast  in 
time  and  space.  It  is  full  of  curves  like 
this,  your  winding  river  of  the  Oise ;  and  lin- 
gers and  returns  in  pleasant  pastorals  ;  and 


130  An  Inland  Voyage 

yet,  rightly  thought  upon,  never  returns  at 
alL  For  though  it  should  revisit  the  same 
acre  of  meadow  in  the  same  hour,  it  will 
have  made  an  ample  sweep  between  whiles ; 
many  little  streams  will  have  fallen  in ; 
many  exhalations  risen  towards  the  sun ; 
and  even  although  it  were  the  same  acre, 
it  will  no  more  be  the  same  river  of  Oise. 
And  thus,  O  graces  of  Origny,  although  the 
wandering  fortune  of  my  life  should  carry 
me  back  again  to  where  you  await  death's 
whistle  by  the  river,  that  will  not  be  the 
old  I  who  walks  the  street ;  and  those  wives 
and  mothers,  say,  will  those  be  you  ? 

There  was  never  any  mistake  about  the 
Oise,  as  a  matter  of  fact.  In  these  upper 
reaches,  it  was  still  in  a  prodigious  hurry 
for  the  sea.  It  ran  so  fast  and  merrily, 
through  all  the  windings  of  its  channel, 
that  I  strained  my  thumb,  fighting  with 
the  rapids,  and  had  to  paddle  all  the  rest  of 
the  way  with  one  hand  turned  up.  Some- 
times, it  had  to  serve  mills;  and  being  still 
a  little  river,  ran  very  dry  and  shallow  in 
the  meanwhile.    We  had  to  put  our  legs  out 


Down  the  Oise :  to  Moy        131 

of  the  boat,  and  shove  ourselves  off  the  sand 
of  the  bottom  with  our  feet.  And  still  it 
went  on  its  way  singing  among  the  poplars, 
and  making  a  green  valley  in  the  world. 
After  a  good  woman,  and  a  good  book,  and 
tobacco,  there  is  nothing  so  agreeable  on 
earth  as  a  river.  I  forgave  it  its  attempt 
on  my  life  ;  which  was  after  all  one  part 
owing  to  the  unruly  winds  of  heaven  that 
had  blown  down  the  tree,  one  part  to  my 
own  mismanagement,  and  only  a  third  part 
to  the  river  itself,  and  that  not  out  of 
malice,  but  from  its  great  pre-occupation 
over  its  business  of  getting  to  the  sea.  A 
difficult  business,  too ;  for  the  detours  it 
had  to  make  are  not  to  be  counted.  The 
geographers  seem  to  have  given  up  the 
attempt ;  for  I  found  no  map  represent  the 
infinite  contortion  of  its  course.  A  fact 
will  say  more  than  any  of  them.  After  we 
had  been  some  hours,  three  if  I  mistake 
not,  flitting  by  the  trees  at  this  smooth, 
breakneck  gallop,  when  we  came  upon  a 
hamlet  and  asked  where  we  were,  we  had 
got   no   farther  than    four  kilometres   (say 


132  All  Inland  Voyage 

two  miles  and  a  half)  from  Origny.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  honour  of  the  thing  (in 
the  Scotch  saying),  we  might  almost  as  well 
have  been  standing  still. 

We  lunched  on  a  meadow  inside  a  paral- 
lelogram of  poplars.  The  leaves  danced 
and  prattled  in  the  wind  all  round  about 
us.  The  river  hurried  on  meanwhile,  and 
seemed  to  chide  at  our  delay.  Little  we 
cared.  The  river  knew  where  it  was 
going ;  not  so  we :  the  less  our  hurry, 
where  we  found  good  quarters  and  a 
pleasant  theatre  for  a  pipe.  At  that  hour, 
stockbrokers  were  shouting  in  Paris  Bourse 
for  two  or  three  per  cent.;  but  we  minded 
them  as  little  as  the  sliding  stream,  and 
sacrificed  a  hecatomb  of  minutes  to  the 
gods  of  tobacco  and  digestion.  Hurry  is 
the  resource  of  the  faithless.  Where  a 
man  can  trust  his  own  heart,  and  those  of 
his  friends,  to-morrow  is  as  good  as  to-day. 
And  if  he  die  in  the  meanwhile,  why 
then,  there  he  dies,  and  the  question  is 
solved. 

We    had    to    take    to    the    canal    in    tliQ 


Down  the  Oise :  to  Moy        133 

course  of  the  afternoon ;  because,  where  it 
crossed  the  river,  there  was,  not  a  bridge, 
but  a  siphon.  If  it  had  not  been  for  an 
excited  fellow  on  the  bank,  we  should  have 
paddled  right  into  the  siphon,  and  thence- 
forward not  paddled  any  more.  We  met 
a  man,  a  gentleman,  on  the  tow-path,  who 
was  much  interested  in  our  cruise.  And 
I  was  witness  to  a  strange  seizure  of  lying 
suffered  by  the  Cigarette :  who,  because 
his  knife  came  from  Norway,  narrated  all 
sorts  of  adventures  in  that  country,  where 
he  has  never  been.  He  was  quite  feverish 
at  the  end,  and  pleaded  demoniacal  pos- 
session. 

Moy  (pronounce  Moy)  was  a  pleasant 
little  village,  gathered  round  a  chdteau  in  a 
moat.  The  air  was  perfumed  with  hemp 
from  neighbouring  fields.  At  the  Golden 
Sheep,  we  found  excellent  entertainment. 
German  shells  from  the  siege  of  La  Fere, 
Nurnberg  figures,  gold  fish  in  a  bowl,  and 
all  manner  of  knick-knacks,  embellished 
the  public  room.  The  landlady  was  a 
stout,  plain,  short-sighted,  motherly  body. 


134  All  Inland  Voyage 

with  something  not  far  short  of  a  genius 
for  cookery.  She  had  a  guess  of  her  excel- 
lence herself.  After  every  dish  was  sent 
in,  she  would  come  and  look  on  at  the 
dinner  for  a  while,  with  puckered,  blinking 
eyes.  '^C'est  bo7i,  nest-ce  pas  ?  "  she  would 
say  ;  and  when  she  had  received  a  proper 
answer,  she  disappeared  into  the  kitchen. 
That  common  French  dish,  partridge  and 
cabbages,  became  a  new  thing  in  my  eyes 
at  the  Golden  Sheep ;  and  many  subsequent 
dinners  have  bitterly  disappointed  me  in 
consequence.  Sweet  was  our  rest  in  the 
Golden  Sheep  at  Moy. 


LA   FfeRE   OF   CURSED   MEMORY 

\17E  lingered  in  Moy  a  good  i)art  of  the 
day,  for  we  were  fond  of  being  philo- 
sophical, and  scorned  long  journeys  and 
early  starts  on  principle.  The  place,  more- 
over, invited  to  repose.  People  in  elab- 
orate shooting  costumes  sallied  from  the 
chdteau  with  guns  and  game-bags  ;  and 
this  was  a  pleasure  in  itself,  to  remain  be- 
hind while  these  elegant  pleasure-seekers 
took  the  first  of  the  morning.  In  this  way, 
all  the  world  may  be  an  aristocrat,  and  play 
the  duke  among  marquises,  and  the  reign- 
ing monarch  among  dukes,  if  he  will  only 
outvie  them  in  tranquillity.  An  imper- 
turbable demeanour  comes  from  perfect 
patience.  Quiet  minds  cannot  be  perplexed 
or  frightened,  but  go  on  in  fortune  or  misfor- 
tune at  their  own  private  pace,  like  a  clock 
during  a  thunderstorm. 

We  made  a  very  short  day  of   it  to  La 


13^  A^i  Inland  Voyage 

Fere ;  but  the  dusk  was  falling,  and  a  small 
rain  had  begun  before  we  stowed  the  boats. 
La  Fere  is  a  fortified  town  in  a  plain,  and 
has  two  belts  of  rampart.  Between  the  first 
and  the  second,  extends  a  region  of  waste 
land  and  cultivated  patches.  Here  and 
there  along  the  wayside  were  posters  for- 
bidding trespass  in  the  name  of  military 
engineering.  At  last,  a  second  gateway  ad- 
mitted us  to  the  town  itself.  Lighted  win- 
dows looked  gladsome,  whiffs  of  comfort- 
able cookery  came  abroad  upon  the  air. 
The  town  was  full  of  the  military  reserve, 
out  for  the  French  Autumn  manoeuvres,  and 
the  reservists  walked  speedily  and  wore 
their  formidable  greatcoats.  It  was  a  fine 
night  to  be  within  doors  over  dinner,  and 
hear  the  rain  upon  the  windows. 

The  Cigarette  and  I  could  not  suflficiently 
congratulate  each  other  on  the  prospect, 
for  we  had  been  told  there  was  a  capital 
inn  at  La  Fere.  Such  a  dinner  as  we  were 
going  to  eat  !  such  beds  as  we  were  to 
sleep  in ! — and  all  the  while  the  rain  raining 
on    houseless    folk    over    all    the    poplared 


La  Fere  of  Cursed  Memory     137 

country-side!  It  made  our  mouths  water. 
The  inn  bore  the  name  of  some  wood- 
land animal,  stag,  or  hart,  or  hind,  I  forget 
which.  But  I  shall  never  forget  how  spa- 
cious and  how  eminently  habitable  it  looked 
as  we  drew  near.  The  carriage  entry  was 
lighted  up,  not  by  intention,  but  from  the 
mere  superfluity  of  fire  and  candle  in  the 
house.  A  rattle  of  many  dishes  came  to 
our  ears  ;  we  sighted  a  great  field  of  table- 
cloth ;  the  kitchen  glowed  like  a  forge  and 
smelt  like  a  garden  of  things  to  eat. 

Into  this,  the  inmost  shrine,  and  physio- 
logical heart,  of  a  hostelry,  with  all  its 
furnaces  in  action,  and  all  its  dressers 
charged  with  viands,  you  are  now  to  sup- 
pose us  making  our  triumphal  entry,  a  pair 
of  damp  rag-and-bone  men,  each  with  a 
limp  india-rubber  bag  upon  his  arm.  I  do 
not  believe  I  have  a  sound  view  of  that 
kitchen  ;  I  saw  it  through  a  sort  of  glory : 
but  it  seemed  to  me  crowded  with  the 
snowy  caps  of  cookmen,  who  all  turned 
round  from  their  saucepans  and  looked  at 
us   with    surprise.      There   was    no    doubt 


138  An  Inland   l^oyagx 

about  the  landlady,  however:  there  she 
was,  heading  her  army,  a  flushed,  angry 
woman,  full  of  affairs.  Her  I  asked  po- 
litely— too  politely,  thinks  the  Cigaj-ctte — 
if  we  could  have  beds :  she  surveying  us 
coldly  from  head  to  foot. 

"  You  will  find  beds  in  the  suburb,"  she 
remarked.  "  We  are  too  busy  for  the  like 
of  you." 

If  we  could  make  an  entrance,  change 
our  clothes,  and  order  a  bottle  of  wine,  I 
felt  sure  we  could  put  things  right ;  so  said 
I :  "If  we  cannot  sleep,  we  may  at  least 
dine," — and  was  for  depositing  my  bag. 

What  a  terrible  convulsion  of  nature  was 
that  which  followed  in  the  landlady's  face! 
She  made  a  run  at  us,  and  stamped  her 
foot. 

"Out  with  you — out  of  the  door!"  she 
screeched.  "  Sortez  !  sortez  !  sortez  par  la 
porte  !  " 

I  do  not  know  how  it  happened,  but 
next  moment  we  were  out  in  the  rain  and 
darkness,  and  I  was  cursing  before  the 
carriage  entry   like  a  disappointed  mendi- 


La  Fh'e  of  Cursed  Memory     139 

cant.  Where  were  the  boating  men  of 
Belgium?  where  the  Judge  and  his  good 
wines?  and  where  the  graces  of  O'i'igny  ? 
Black,  black  was  the  night  after  the  firelit 
kitchen  ;  but  what  was  that  to  the  black- 
ness in  our  heart  ?  This  was  not  the  first 
time  that  I  have  been  refused  a  lodging. 
Often  and  often  have  I  planned  what  I 
should  do  if  such  a  misadventure  happened 
to  me  again.  And  nothing  is  easier  to 
plan.  But  to  put  in  execution,  with  the 
heart  boiling  at  the  indignity?  Try  it; 
try  it  only  once  ;  and  tell  me  what  you  did. 
It  is  all  very  fine  to  talk  about  tramps 
and  morality.  Six  hours  of  police  surveil- 
lance (such  as  I  have  had),  or  one  brutal 
rejection  from  an  inn  door,  change  your 
views  upon  the  subject  like  a  course  of 
lectures.  As  long  as  you  keep  in  the 
upper  regions,  with  all  the  world  bowing 
to  you  as  you  go,  social  arrangements  have 
a  very  handsome  air;  but  once  get  under 
the  wheels,  and  you  wish  society  were  at 
the  devil.  I  will  give  most  respectable 
men  a  fortnight  of  such  a  life,  and  then  I 


I40  An  Inland  Voyage 

will  offer  them  twopence  for  what  remains 
of  their  morality. 

For  my  part,  when  I  was  turned  out  of 
the  Stag,  or  the  Hind,  or  whatever  it  was, 
I  would  have  set  the  temple  of  Diana  on 
fire,  if  it  had  been  handy.  There  Avas  no 
crime  complete  enough  to  express  my  dis- 
approval of  human  institutions.  As  for 
the  Cigarette,  I  never  knew  a  man  so 
altered.  "  We  have  been  taken  for  pedlars 
again,"  said  he.  "Good  God,  what  it  must 
be  to  be  a  pedlar  in  reality!  "  He  particu- 
larised a  complaint  for  every  joint  in  the 
landlady's  body.  Timon  was  a  philanthro- 
pist alongside  of  him.  And  then,  when  he 
was  at  the  top  of  his  maledictory  bent, 
he  would  suddenly  break  away  and  begin 
whimperingly  to  commiserate  the  poor. 
"  I  hope  to  God,''  he  said, — and  I  trust  the 
prayer  was  answered, — "  that  I  shall  never 
be  uncivil  to  a  pedlar."  Was  this  the  im- 
perturbable Cigarette  ?  This,  this  was  he. 
O  change  beyond  report,  thought,  or  belief! 

Meantime  the  heaven  wept  upon  our 
heads ;    and    the    windows    grew    brighter 


La  Fere  of  Cursed  Memory     141 

as  the  night  increased  in  darkness.  We 
trudged  in  and  out  of  La  Fere  streets ;  we 
saw  shops,  and  private  houses  where  peo- 
ple were  copiously  dining ;  we  saw  stables 
where  carters'  nags  had  plenty  of  fodder 
and  clean  straw ;  we  saw  no  end  of  reserv- 
ists, who  were  very  sorry  for  themselves  this 
wet  night,  I  doubt  not,  and  yearned  for 
their  country  homes ;  but  had  they  not 
each  man  his  place  in  La  Fere  barracks? 
And  we,  what  had  we? 

There  seemed  to  be  no  other  inn  in  the 
whole  town.  People  gave  us  directions, 
which  we  followed  as  best  we  could,  gen- 
erally with  the  effect  of  bringing  us  out 
again  upon  the  scene  of  our  disgrace.  We 
were  very  sad  people  indeed  by  the  time 
we  had  gone  all  over  La  Fere ;  and  the 
Cigarette  had  already  made  up  his  mind 
to  lie  under  a  poplar  and  sup  off  a  loaf  of 
bread.  But  right  at  the  other  end,  the 
house  next  the  towngate  was  full  of  light 
and  bustle.  "  Bazin,  aubergiste,  loge  h pied^' 
was  the  sign.  'M  la  Croix  de  Malte.'' 
There  were  we  received. 


142  An  Inland   Voyage 

The  room  was  full  of  noisy  reservists 
drinking  and  smoking;  and  we  were  very- 
glad  indeed  when  the  drums  and  bugles 
began  to  go  about  the  streets,  and  one 
and  all  had  to  snatch  shakoes  and  be  off 
for  the  barracks. 

Basin  was  a  tall  man,  running  to  fat  : 
soft-spoken,  with  a  delicate,  gentle  face. 
We  asked  him  to  share  our  wine  ;  but  he 
excused  himself,  having  pledged  reservists 
all  day  long.  This  was  a  very  different 
type  of  the  workman-innkeeper  from  the 
bawling  disputatious  fellow  at  Origny.  He 
also  loved  Paris,  where  he  had  worked  as 
a  decorative  painter  in  his  youth.  There 
were  such  opportunities  for  self-instruction 
there,  he  said.  And  if  anyone  has  read 
Zola's  description  of  the  workman's  mar- 
riage party  visiting  the  Louvre,  they  would 
do  well  to  have  heard  Basin  by  way  of  an- 
tidote. He  had  delighted  in  the  museums 
in  his  youth.  "  One  sees  there  little  mira- 
cles of  work,"  he  said  ;  "  that  is  what  makes 
a  good  workman  ;  it  kindles  a  spark."  We 
asked   him,   how  he  managed   in  La  Fire. 


La  F'ere  of  Cursed  Memoiy     143 

"  I  am  married,"  he  said,  "  and  I  have  my 
pretty  children.  But  frankly,  it  is  no  life 
at  all.  From  morning  to  night,  I  pledge  a 
pack  of  good  enough  fellows  who  know 
nothing." 

It  faired  as  the  night  went  on,  and  the 
moon  came  out  of  the  clouds.  We  sat  in 
front  of  the  door,  talking  softly  with  Basin. 
At  the  guard-house  opposite,  the  guard 
was  being  for  ever  turned  out,  as  trains 
of  field  artillery  kept  clanking  in  out  of 
the  night,  or  patrols  of  horsemen  trotted 
by  in  their  cloaks.  Madame  Bazin  came 
out  after  a  while  ;  she  was  tired  with  her 
day's  work,  I  suppose  ;  and  she  nestled  up 
to  her  husband  and  laid  her  head  upon  his 
breast.  He  had  his  arm  about  her  and  kept 
gently  patting  her  on  the  shoulder,  I  think 
Bazin  was  right,  and  he  was  really  married. 
Of  how  few  people  can  the  same  be  said  ! 

Little  did  the  Bazins  know  how  much 
they  served  us.  We  were  charged  for  can- 
dles, for  food  and  drink,  and  for  the  beds 
we  slept  in.  But  there  was  nothing  in  the 
bill  for  the  husband's  pleasant  talk  ;  nor  for 


144  A  71  Inland   Voyage 

the  pretty  spectacle  of  their  married  life. 
And  there  was  yet  another  item  uncharged. 
For  these  people's  politeness  really  set  us 
up  again  in  our  own  esteem.  We  had  a 
thirst  for  consideration  ;  the  sense  of  insult 
was  still  hot  in  our  spirits ;  and  civil  usage 
seemed  to  restore  us  to  our  position  in  the 
world. 

How  little  we  pay  our  way  in  life  !  Al- 
though we  have  our  purses  continually  in 
our  hand  the  better  part  of  service  goes  still 
unrewarded.  But  I  like  to  fancy  that  a 
grateful  spirit  gives  as  good  as  it  gets. 
Perhaps  the  Bazins  knew  how  much  I  liked 
them  ?  perhaps,  they  also,  were  healed  of 
some  slights  by  the  thanks  that  I  gave 
them  in  my  manner? 


DOWN    THE   OISE 
THROUGH  THE  GOLDEN   VALLEY 

DELOW  La  Fere  the  river  runs  through  a 
piece  of  open  pastoral  country  ;  green, 
opulent,  loved  by  breeders  ;  called  the 
Golden  J^alley.  In  wide  sweeps,  and  with 
a  swift  and  equable  gallop,  the  ceaseless 
stream  of  water  visits  and  makes  green  the 
fields,  Kine,  and  horses,  and  little  humor- 
ous donkeys,  browse  together  in  the  mead- 
ows, and  come  down  in  troops  to  the 
river  side  to  drink.  They  make  a  strange 
feature  in  the  landscape ;  above  all  when 
startled,  and  you  see  them  galloping  to  and 
fro,  with  their  incongruous  forms  and  faces. 
It  gives  a  feeling  as  of  great,  unfenced 
pampas,  and  the  herds  of  wandering  na- 
tions. There  were  hills  in  the  distance 
upon  either  hand  ;  and  on  one  side,  the 
river  sometimes  bordered  on  the  wooded 
spurs  of  Coucy  and  St.  Gobam. 

lO 


14^  An  Inland   Voyage 

The  artillery  were  practising  at  La  Ftre ; 
and  soon  the  cannon  of  heaven  joined  in 
that  loud  play.  Two  continents  of  cloud 
met  and  exchanged  salvos  overhead  ;  while 
all  round  the  horizon  we  could  see  sun- 
shine and  clear  air  upon  the  hills.  What 
with  the  guns  and  the  thunder,  the  herds 
were  all  frighted  in  the  Golden  Valley.  We 
could  see  them  tossing  their  heads,  and 
running  to  and  fro  in  timorous  indecision  ; 
and  when  they  had  made  up  their  minds, 
and  the  donkey  followed  the  horse,  and  the 
cow  was  after  the  donkey,  we  could  hear 
their  hooves  thundering  abroad  over  the 
meadows.  It  had  a  martial  sound,  like 
cavalry  charges.  And  altogether,  as  far 
as  the  ears  are  concerned,  we  had  a  very 
rousing  battle  piece,  performed  for  our 
amusement. 

At  last,  the  guns  and  the  thunder 
dropped  off;  the  sun  shone  on  the  wet 
meadows ;  the  air  was  scented  with  the 
breath  of  rejoicing  trees  and  grass ;  and 
the  river  kept  unweariedly  carrying  us  on 
at    its   best    pace.     There   was  a  manufac- 


Down  the  Oise,   &c  iA7 

turing  district  about  Chauny ;  and  after 
that  the  banks  grew  so  high  that  they  hid 
the  adjacent  country,  and  we  could  see 
nothing  but  clay  sides,  and  one  willow 
after  another.  Only,  here  and  there,  we 
passed  by  a  village  or  a  ferry,  and  some 
wondering  child  upon  the  bank  would  stare 
after  us  until  we  turned  the  corner.  I 
daresay  we  continued  to  paddle  in  that 
child's  dreams  for  many  a  night  after. 

Sun  and  shower  alternated  like  day  and 
night,  making  the  hours  longer  by  their 
variety.  When  the  showers  were  heavy 
I  could  feel  each  drop  striking  though  my 
jersey  to  my  warm  skin  ;  and  the  accumu- 
lation of  small  shocks  put  me  nearly  beside 
myself.  I  decided  I  should  buy  a  mackin- 
tosh at  Noyon.  It  is  nothing  to  get  wet  ; 
but  the  misery  of  these  individual  pricks 
of  cold  all  over  my  body  at  the  same  in- 
stant of  time,  made  me  flail  the  water  with 
my  paddle  like  a  madman.  The  Cigarette 
was  greatly  amused  by  these  ebullitions. 
It  gave  him  something  else  to  look  at, 
besides  clay  banks  and  willows. 


148  An  Inland  Voyage 

All  the  time,  the  river  stole  away  like  a 
thief  in  straight  places,  or  swung  round 
corners  with  an  eddy  ;  the  willows  nodded 
and  were  undermined  all  day  long ;  the 
clay  banks  tumbled  in  ;  the  Oise,  which 
had  been  so  many  centuries  making  the 
Golden  Valley,  seemed  to  have  changed  its 
fancy,  and  be  bent  upon  undoing  its  per- 
formance. What  a  number  of  things  a 
river  does,  by  simply  following  Gravity  in 
the  innocence  of  its  heart ! 


NOYON   CATHEDRAL 

ATOYON  stands  about  a  mile  from  the 
river,  in  a  little  plain  surrounded  by 
wooded  hills,  and  entirely  covers  an  emi- 
nence with  its  tile  roofs,  surmounted  by  a 
long,  straight-backed  cathedral  with  two 
stiff  towers.  As  we  got  into  the  town, 
the  tile  roofs  seemed  to  tumble  uphill  one 
upon  another,  in  the  oddest  disorder  ;  but 
for  all  their  scrambling,  they  did  not  attain 
above  the  knees  of  the  cathedral,  which 
stood,  upright  and  solemn,  over  all.  As 
the  streets  drew  near  to  this  presiding 
genius,  through  the  market  place  under 
the  Hotel  de  Ville,  they  grew  emptier  and 
more  composed.  Blank  walls  and  shut- 
tered windows  were  turned  to  the  great 
edifice,  and  grass  grew  on  the  white  cause- 
way. "  Put  off  thy  shoes  from  ofT  thy 
feet,  for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest 
is    holy    ground."     The    Hotel   du    Nord, 


150  An  Inland  Voyage 

nevertheless,  lights  its  secular  tapers  within 
a  stone  cast  of  the  church  ;  and  we  had 
the  superb  east-end  before  our  eyes  all 
morning  from  the  window  of  our  bed- 
room. I  have  seldom  looked  on  the  east- 
end  of  a  church  with  more  complete 
sympathy.  As  it  flanges  out  in  three 
wide  terraces,  and  settles  down  broadly 
on  the  earth,  it  looks  like  the  poop  of 
some  great  old  battle  ship.  Hollow-backed 
buttresses  carry  vases,  which  figure  for  the 
stern  lanterns.  There  is  a  roll  in  the 
ground,  and  the  towers  just  appear  above 
the  pitch  of  the  roof,  as  though  the  good 
ship  were  bowing  lazily  over  an  Atlantic 
swell.  At  any  moment  it  might  be  a 
hundred  feet  away  from  you,  climbing  the 
next  billow.  At  any  moment  a  window 
might  open,  and  some  old  admiral  thrust 
forth  a  cocked  hat,  and  proceed  to  take 
an  observation.  The  old  admirals  sail  the 
sea  no  longer  ;  the  old  ships  of  battle  are 
all  broken  up,  and  live  only  in  pictures  ; 
but  this,  that  was  a  church  before  ever 
they  were   thought  upon,  is  still  a  church. 


Noyon  Cathedral  151 

and  makes  as  brave  an  appearance  by  the 
Oise.  The  cathedral,  and  the  river  are 
probably  the  two  oldest  things  for  miles 
around  ;  and  certainly  they  have  both  a 
grand  old  age. 

The  Sacristan  took  us  to  the  top  of  one 
of  the  towers,  and  showed  us  the  five 
bells  hanging  in  their  loft.  From  above, 
the  town  was  a  tesselated  pavement  of 
roofs  and  gardens  ;  the  old  line  of  rampart 
was  plainly  traceable  ;  and  the  Sacristan 
pointed  out  to  us,  far  across  the  plain,  in 
a  bit  of  gleaming  sky  between  two  clouds, 
the  towers  of  Chateau  Coney. 

I  find  I  never  weary  of  great  churches. 
It  is  my  favourite  kind  of  mountain  scenery. 
Mankind  was  never  so  happily  inspired  as 
when  it  made  a  cathedral :  a  thing  as  single 
and  specious  as  a  statue  to  the  first  glance, 
and  yet,  on  examination,  as  lively  and  inter- 
esting as  a  forest  in  detail.  The  height  of 
spires  cannot  be  taken  by  trigonometry ; 
they  measure  absurdly  short,  but  how  tall 
they  are  to  the  admiring  eye  !  And  where 
we    have    so    many    elegant    proportions, 


152  A 71  Inland  Voyage 

growing  one  out  of  the  other,  and  all  to- 
gether into  one,  it  seems  as  if  proportion 
transcended  itself    and    became  something- 

o 

different  and  more  imposing.  I  could 
never  fathom  how  a  man  dares  to  lift  up 
his  voice  to  preach  in  a  cathedral.  What 
is  he  to  say  that  will  not  be  an  anti-climax? 
For  though  I  have  heard  a  considerable 
variety  of  sermons,  I  never  yet  heard  one 
that  was  so  expressive  as  a  cathedral.  'Tis 
the  best  preacher  itself,  and  preaches  day 
and  night ;  not  only  telling  you  of  man's 
art  and  aspirations  in  the  past,  but  con- 
victing your  own  soul  of  ardent  sympa- 
thies ;  or  rather,  like  all  good  preachers,  it 
sets  you  preaching  to  yourself ; — and  every 
man  is  his  own  doctor  of  divinity  in  the 
last  ressort. 

As  I  sat  outside  of  the  hotel  in  the  course 
of  the  afternoon,  the  sweet  groaning  thun- 
der of  the  organ  floated  out  of  the  church 
like  a  summons.  I  was  not  averse,  liking 
the  theatre  so  well,  to  sit  out  an  act  or  two 
of  the  play,  but  I  could  never  rightly  make 
out    the    nature  of   the    service    I    beheld. 


Noyon  Cathedral  i53 

Four  or  five  priests  and  as  many  choristers 
were  singing  Miserere  before  the  high  altar 
when  I  went  in.  There  was  no  congrega- 
tion but  a  few  old  women  on  chairs  and  old 
men  kneeling  on  the  pavement.  After  a 
while  a  long  train  of  young  girls,  walking 
two  and  two,  each  with  a  lighted  taper  in 
her  hand,  and  all  dressed  in  black  with  a 
white  veil,  came  from  behind  the  altar  and 
began  to  descend  the  nave  ;  the  four  first 
carrying  a  Virgin  and  child  upon  a  table. 
The  priests  and  choristers  arose  from  their 
knees  and  followed  after,  singing  "  Ave 
Mary  "  as  they  went.  In  this  order,  they 
made  the  circuit  of  the  cathedral,  passing 
twice  before  me  where  I  leaned  against  a 
pillar.  The  priest  who  seemed  of  most 
consequence  was  a  strange,  down-looking 
old  man.  He  kept  mumbling  prayers  with 
his  lips ;  but  as  he  looked  upon  me  dark- 
ling, it  did  not  seem  as  if  prayer  were 
uppermost  in  his  heart.  Two  others,  who 
bore  the  burthen  of  the  chaunt,  were  stout, 
brutal,  military-looking  men  of  forty,  with 
bold,  over-fed  eyes ;  they  sang  with  some 


154  An  Inland  Voyage 

lustiness,  and  trolled  forth  "  Ave  Mary " 
like  a  garrison  catch.  The  little  girls 
were  timid  and  grave.  As  they  footed 
slowly  up  the  aisle,  each  one  took  a 
moment's  glance  at  the  Englishman;  and 
the  big  nun  who  played  marshal  fairly 
stared  him  out  of  countenance.  As  for 
the  choristers,  from  first  to  last  they  mis- 
behaved as  only  boys  can  misbehave;  and 
cruelly  marred  the  performance  with  their 
antics. 

I  understood  a  great  deal  of  the  spirit 
of  what  went  on.  Indeed  it  would  be 
difficult  not  to  understand  the  Miserere, 
which  I  take  to  be  the  composition  of  an 
atheist.  If  it  ever  be  a  good  thing  to  take 
such  despondency  to  heart,  the  Miserere 
is  the  right  music  and  a  cathedral  a  fit 
scene.  So  far  I  am  at  one  with  the  Cath- 
olics : — an  odd  name  for  them,  after  all  ? 
WwX.  why,  in  God's  name,  these  holiday 
choristers?  why  these  priests  who  steal 
wandering  looks  about  the  congregation 
while  they  feign  to  be  at  prayer  ?  why  this 
fat  nun,  who   rudely  arranges  her  proces- 


Noyon   CatJiedral  i55 

sion  and  shakes  delinquent  virgins  by  the 
elbow  ?  why  this  spitting,  and  snuffing, 
and  forgetting  of  keys,  and  the  thousand 
and  one  little  misadventures  that  disturb 
a  frame  of  mind,  laboriously  edified  with 
chaunts  and  organings?  In  any  play-house 
reverend  fathers  may  see  what  can  be  done 
with  a  little  art,  and  how,  to  move  high 
sentiments,  it  is  necessary  to  drill  the 
supernumeraries  and  have  every  stool  in 
its  proper  place. 

One  other  circumstance  distressed  me. 
I  could  bear  a  Miserere  myself,  having  had 
a  good  deal  of  open  air  exercise  of  late  ; 
but  I  wished  the  old  people  somewhere 
else.  It  was  neither  the  right  sort  of 
music  nor  the  right  sort  of  divinity,  for 
men  and  women  who  have  come  through 
most  accidents  by  this  time,  and  probably 
have  an  opinion  of  their  own  upon  the 
tragic  element  in  life.  A  person  up  in 
years  can  generally  do  his  own  Miserere 
for  himself ;  although  I  notice  that  such 
an  one  often  prefers  Jubilate  Deo  for  his 
ordinary  singing.     On  the  whole,  the  most 


156  An  Inland  Voyage 

religious  exercise  for  the  aged  is  probably 
to  recall  their  own  experience ;  so  many 
friends  dead,  so  many  hopes  disappointed, 
so  many  slips  and  stumbles,  and  withal  so 
many  bright  days  and  smiling  providences ; 
there  is  surely  the  matter  of  a  very  elo- 
quent sermon  in  all  this. 

On  the  whole,  I  was  greatly  solemnised. 
In  the  little  pictorial  map  of  our  whole 
Inland  Voyage,  which  my  fancy  still 
preserves,  and  sometimes  unrolls  for  the 
amusement  of  odd  moments,  Noyott  cathe- 
dral figures  on  a  most  preposterous  scale, 
and  must  be  nearly  as  large  as  a  depart- 
ment. I  can  still  see  the  faces  of  the 
priests  as  if  they  were  at  my  elbow,  and 
hear  Ave  Maria,  or  a  pro  nobis  sounding 
through  the  church.  All  Noyon  is  blotted 
out  for  me  by  these  superior  memories  ; 
and  I  do  not  care  to  say  more  about  the 
place.  It  was  but  a  stack  of  brown  roofs 
at  the  best,  where  I  believe  people  live 
very  reputably  in  a  quiet  way ;  but  the 
shadow  of  the  church  falls  upon  it  when 
the  sun  is  low,  and  the  five  bells  are  heard 


Noyon   Cathedral  i57 

in  all  quarters,  telling  that  the  organ  has 
begun.  If  ever  I  join  the  church  of  Rome, 
I  shall  stipulate  to  be  Bishop  of  Noyon  on 
the  Oise. 


DOWN    THE   OISE:   TO   COMPIEGNE 

'T'HE  most  patient  people  grow  weary  at 
last  with  being  continually  wetted  with 
rain  ;  except  of  course  in  the  Scotch  High- 
lands, where  there  are  not  enough  fine  in- 
tervals to  point  the  difference.  That  was 
like  to  be  our  case,  the  day  we  left  Noyon. 
I  remember  nothing  of  the  voyage;  it  was 
nothing  but  clay  banks  and  willows,  and 
rain  ;  incessant,  pitiless,  beating  rain  :  until 
we  stopped  to  lunch  at  a  little  inn  at  Pim- 
prez,  where  the  canal  ran  very  near  the 
river.  We  were  so  sadly  drenched  that  the 
landlady  lit  a  few  sticks  in  the  chimney  for 
our  comfort  ;  there  we  sat  in  a  steam  of 
vapour,  lamenting  our  concerns.  The  hus- 
band donned  a  game  bag  and  strode  out  to 
shoot  ;  the  wife  sat  in  a  far  corner  watching 
us.  I  think,  we  were  worth  looking  at. 
We  grumbled  over  the  misfortune  of  La 
Fere ;    we  forecast   other   La  Feres  in    the 


D 010 11  tJic   Disc  :  to   Compi'eg7ie     1 59 

future  ; — although  things  went  better  with 
the  Cigarette  for  spokesman  ;  he  had  more 
aplomb  altogether  than  I  ;  and  a  dull,  posi- 
tive way  of  approaching  a  landlady  that 
carried  off  the  india-rubber  bags.  Talking 
of  La  Fire,  put  us  talking  of  the  reservists. 

"  Reservery,"  said  he,  "  seems  a  pretty 
mean  way  to  spend  one's  autumn  holiday." 

"About  as  mean,"  returned  I  dejectedly, 
"as  canoeing." 

"  These  gentlemen  travel  for  their  pleas- 
ure?" asked  the  landlady,  with  uncon- 
scious irony. 

It  was  too  much.  The  scales  fell  from 
our  eyes.  Another  wet  day,  it  was  deter- 
mined, and  we  put  the  boats  into  the  train. 

The  weather  took  the  hint.  That  was 
our  last  wetting.  The  afternoon  faired  up  : 
grand  clouds  still  voyaged  in  the  sky,  but 
now  singly,  and  with  a  depth  of  blue  around 
their  path  ;  and  a  sunset,  in  the  daintiest 
rose  and  gold,  inaugurated  a  thick  night  of 
stars  and  a  month  of  unbroken  weather. 
At  the  same  time,  the  river  began  to  give 
us  a  better  outlook  into  the  country.     The 


i6o  All  Inland  Voyage 

banks  were  not  so  high,  the  willows  disap- 
peared from  along  the  margin,  and  pleasant 
hills  stood  all  along  its  course  and  marked 
their  profile  on  the  sky. 

In  a  little  while,  the  canal,  coming  to  its 
last  lock,  began  to  discharge  its  water- 
houses  on  the  Oise ;  so  that  we  had  no  lack 
of  company  to  fear.  Here  were  all  our  old 
friends  ;  the  Deo  Gratias  of  Cond(f  and  the 
Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  journeyed  cheerily 
down  stream  along  with  us  ;  we  exchanged 
waterside  pleasantries  with  the  steersman 
perched  among  the  lumber,  or  the  driver 
hoarse  with- bawling  to  his  horses  ;  and  the 
children  came  and  looked  over  the  side  as 
we  paddled  by.  We  had  never  known  all 
this  while  how  much  we  missed  them  ;  but 
it  gave  us  a  fillip  to  see  the  smoke  from 
their  chimneys. 

A  little  below  this  junction,  we  made 
another  meeting  of  yet  more  account. 
For  there  we  were  joined  by  the  Aisne, 
already  a  far-travelled  river  and  fresh  out 
of  Champagne.  Here  ended  the  adoles- 
cence of  the   Oise;   this  was  his   marriage 


Down  the  Oise :  to  Compie^ne     i6i 

day  ;  thenceforward  he  had  a  stately,  brim- 
ming march,  conscious  of  his  own  dignity 
and  sundry  dams.  He  became  a  tranquil 
feature  in  the  scene.  The  trees  and  towns 
saw  themselves  in  him,  as  in  a  mirror.  He 
carried  the  canoes  lightly  on  his  broad 
breast ;  there  was  no  need  to  work  hard 
against  an  eddy  :  but  idleness  became  the 
order  of  the  day,  and  mere  straightfor- 
ward dipping  of  the  paddle,  now  on  this 
side,  now  on  that,  without  intelligence  or 
effort.  Truly  we  were  coming  into  hal- 
cyon weather  upon  all  accounts,  and  were 
floated  towards  the  sea  like  gentlemen. 

We  made  Compicgne,  as  the  sun  was 
going  down :  a  fine  profile  of  a  town 
above  the  river.  Over  the  bridge,  a  regi- 
ment was  parading  to  the  drum.  People 
loitered  on  the  quay,  some  fishing,  some 
looking  idly  at  the  stream.  And  as  the 
two  boats  shot  in  along  the  water,  we 
could  see  them  pointing  them  out  and 
speaking  one  to  another.  We  landed  at  a 
floating  lavatory,  where  the  washerwomen 
were  still  beating  the  clothes. 


AT    COMPIEGNE 

\A7E  put   up   at  a  big,  bustling  hotel  in 
Compicgne,    where    nobody  observed 
our  presence. 

Reservery  and  general  militarismus  (as 
the  Germans  call  it),  was  rampant.  A 
camp  of  conical  white  tents  without  the 
town,  looked  like  a  leaf  out  of  a  picture 
Bible  ;  sword-belts  decorated  the  walls  of 
the  cafds ;  and  the  streets  kept  sounding 
all  day  long  with  military  music.  It  was 
not  possible  to  be  an  EnglisJiman  and 
avoid  a  feeling  of  elation  ;  for  the  men 
who  followed  the  drums  were  small,  and 
walked  shabbily.  Each  man  inclined  at 
his  own  angle,  and  jolted  to  his  own  con- 
venience, as  he  went.  There  was  nothing 
of  the  superb  gait  with  which  a  regiment 
of  tall  highlanders  moves  behind  its  music, 
solemn  and  inevitable,  like  a  natural  phe- 
nomenon.    Who,  that  has  seen  it,  can  for- 


At  Compi'egne  163 

get  the  drum-major  pacing  in  front,  the 
drummers'  tiger-skins,  the  pipers'  swing- 
ing plaids,  the  strange  elastic  rhythm  of  the 
whole  regiment  footing  it  in  time — and 
the  bang  of  the  drum,  when  the  brasses 
cease,  and  the  shrill  pipes  take  up  the 
martial  story  in  their  place? 

A  girl,  at  school  in  France,  began  to 
describe  one  of  our  regiments  on  parade, 
to  her  French  schoolmates  ;  and  as  she 
went  on,  she  told  me,  the  recollection  grew 
so  vivid,  she  became  so  proud  to  be  the 
countrywoman  of  such  soldiers,  and  so 
sorry  to  be  in  another  country,  that  her 
voice  failed  her  and  she  burst  into  tears. 
I  have  never  forgotten  that  girl  ;  and  I 
think  she  very  nearly  deserves  a  statue. 
To  call  her  a  young  lady,  with  all  its 
niminy  associations,  would  be  to  offer  her 
an  insult.  She  may  rest  assured  of  one 
thing;  although  she  never  should  marry  a 
heroic  general,  never  see  any  great  or  im- 
mediate result  of  her  life,  she  will  not  have 
lived  in  vain  for  her  native  land. 

But  though  French  soldiers  show  to  ill- 


1^4  An  htland  Voyage 

advantage  on  parade,  on  the  march  they 
are  gay,  alert,  and  willing  like  a  troop  of 
fox-hunters.  I  remember  once  seeing  a 
company  pass  through  the  forest  of  Fon- 
tainebleaii,  on  the  Chailly  road,  between  the 
Bas  Br^au  and  the  Rcine  Blanche.  One 
fellow  walked  a  little  before  the  rest,  and 
sang  a  loud,  audacious  marching  song. 
The  rest  bestirred  their  feet,  and  even 
swung  their  muskets  in  time.  A  young 
ofificer  on  horseback  had  hard  ado  to  keep 
his  countenance  at  the  words.  You  never 
saw  anything  so  cheerful  and  spontaneous 
as  their  gait ;  schoolboys  do  not  look  more 
eagerly  at  hare  and  hounds  ;  and  you  would 
have  thought  it  impossible  to  tire  such 
willing  marchers. 

My  great  delight  in  Compiegnc  was  the 
town-hall.  I  doted  upon  the  town-hall.  It 
is  a  monument  of  Gothic  insecurity,  all 
turretted,  and  gargoyled,  and  slashed,  and 
bedizened  with  half  a  score  of  architect- 
ural fancies.  Some  of  the  niches  are  gilt 
and  painted  ;  and  in  a  great  square  panel 
in    the    centre,    in    black    relief    on    a    gilt 


At  Compiegne  165 

ground,  Louis  XII.  rides  upon  a  pacing 
horse,  with  hand  on  hip,  and  head  thrown 
back.  There  is  royal  arrogance  in  every 
Hne  of  him  ;  the  stirrupped  foot  projects 
insolently  from  the  frame ;  the  eye  is  hard 
and  proud  ;  the  very  horse  seems  to  be 
treading  with  gratification  over  prostrate 
serfs,  and  to  have  the  breath  of  the  trumpet 
in  his  nostrils.  So  rides  for  ever,  on  the 
front  of  the  town-hall,  the  good  king  Louis 
XII.,  the  father  of  his  people. 

Over  the  king's  head,  in  the  tall  centre 
turret,  appears  the  dial  of  a  clock ;  and  high 
above  that,  three  little  mechanical  figures, 
each  one  with  a  hammer  in  his  hand,  whose 
business  it  is  to  chime  out  the  hours  and 
halves  and  quarters  for  the  burgesses  of 
Compicgtie.  The  centre  figure  has  a  gilt 
breast-plate  ;  the  two  others  wear  gilt 
trunk-hose  ;  and  they  all  three  have  ele- 
gant, flapping  hats  like  cavaliers.  As  the 
quarter  approaches,  they  turn  their  heads 
and  look  knowingly  one  to  the  other ; 
and  then,  kling  go  the  three  hammers 
on  three  little  bells  below.     The  hour  fol- 


1 66  An  Inla7id  Voyage 

lows,  deep  and  sonorous,  from  the  in- 
terior of  the  tower ;  and  the  gilded  gen- 
tlemen rest  from  their  labours  with  con- 
tentment. 

I  had  a  great  deal  of  healthy  pleasure 
from  their  manoeuvres,  and  took  good  care 
to  miss  as  few  performances  as  possible ; 
and  I  found  that  even  the  Cigarette,  while 
he  pretended  to  despise  my  enthusiasm, 
was  more  or  less  a  devotee  himself.  There 
is  something  highly  absurd  in  the  exposi- 
tion of  such  toys  to  the  outrages  of  winter 
on  a  housetop.  They  would  be  more  in 
keeping  in  a  glass  case  before  a  Nurnberg 
clock.  Above  all,  at  night,  when  the  chil- 
dren are  abed,  and  even  grown  people  are 
snoring  under  quilts,  does  it  not  seem  im- 
pertinent to  leave  these  ginger-bread  figures 
winking  and  tinkling  to  the  stars  and  the 
rolling  moon  ?  The  gargoyles  may  fitly 
enough  twist  their  ape-like  heads  ;  fitly 
enough  may  the  potentate  bestride  his 
charger,  like  a  centurion  in  an  old  German 
print  of  the  Via  Dolorosa;  but  the  toys 
should  be  put  away  in  a  box  among  some 


At  Covipiegne  167 

cotton,  until  the  sun  rises,  and  the  children 
are  abroad  again  to  be  amused. 

In  Compicgne  post-office,  a  great  packet 
of  letters  awaited  us  ;  and  the  authorities 
were,  for  this  occasion  only,  so  polite  as  to 
hand  them  over  upon  application. 

In  some  way,  our  journey  may  be  said  to 
end  with  this  letter-bag  at  Compicgne.  The 
spell  was  broken.  We  had  partly  come 
home  from  that  moment. 

No  one  should  have  any  correspondence 
on  a  journey;  it  is  bad  enough  to  have  to 
write  ;  but  the  receipt  of  letters  is  the  death 
of  all  holiday  feeling. 

"Out  of  my  country  and  myself  I  go." 
I  wish  to  take  a  dive  among  new  conditions 
for  awhile,  as  into  another  element.  I  have 
nothing  to  do  with  my  friends  or  my  affec- 
tions for  the  time ;  when  I  came  away,  I 
left  my  heart  at  home  in  a  desk,  or  sent  it 
forward  with  my  portmanteau  to  await  me 
at  my  destination.  After  my  journey  is 
over,  I  shall  not  fail  to  read  your  admirable 
letters  with  the  attention  they  deserve. 
But  I  have  paid  all  this  money,  look  you, 


1 68  An  Inland  V^oyage 

and  paddled  all  these  strokes,  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  be  abroad;  and  yet  you 
keep  me  at  home  with  your  perpetual  com- 
munications. You  tug  the  string,  and  I 
feel  that  I  am  a  tethered  bird.  You  pursue 
me  all  over  Europe  with  the  little  vexations 
that  I  came  away  to  avoid.  There  is  no 
discharge  in  the  war  of  life,  I  am  well 
aware;  but  shall  there  not  be  so  much  as 
a  week's  furlough? 

We  were  up  by  six,  the  day  we  were  to 
leave.  They  had  taken  so  little  note  of  us 
that  I  hardly  thought  they  would  have  con- 
descended on  a  bill.  But  they  did,  with 
some  smart  particulars  too  ;  and  we  paid  in 
a  civilized  manner  to  an  uninterested  clerk, 
and  went  out  of  that  hotel,  with  the  india- 
rubber  bags,  unremarked.  No  one  cared 
to  know  about  us.  It  is  not  possible  to 
rise  before  a  village ;  but  Compicgne  was 
so  grown  a  town,  that  it  took  its  ease  in 
the  morning;  and  we  were  up  and  away 
while  it  was  still  in  dressing  gown  and 
slippers.  The  streets  were  left  to  people 
washing   door-steps ;    nobody  was    in    full 


At  Compiegne  169 

dress  but  the  cavaliers  upon  the  town-hall ; 
they  were  all  washed  with  dew,  spruce  in 
their  gilding,  and  full  of  intelligence  and  a 
sense  of  professional  responsibility.  Kling, 
went  they  on  the  bells  for  the  half-past  six, 
as  we  went  by.  I  took  it  kind  of  them  to 
make  me  this  parting  compliment ;  they 
never  were  in  better  form,  not  even  at  noon 
upon  a  Sunday. 

There  was  no  one  to  see  us  off  but  the 
early  washerwomen — early  and  late — who 
were  already  beating  the  linen  in  their 
floating  lavatory  on  the  river.  They  were 
very  merry  and  matutinal  in  their  ways  ; 
plunged  their  arms  boldly  in,  and  seemed 
not  to  feel  the  shock.  It  would  be  dis- 
piriting to  me,  this  early  beginning  and 
first  cold  dabble,  of  a  most  dispiriting  day's 
work.  But  I  believe  they  would  have  been 
as  unwilling  to  change  days  with  us,  as 
we  could  be  to  change  with  them.  They 
crowded  to  the  door  to  watch  us  paddle 
away  into  the  thin  sunny  mists  upon  the 
river ;  and  shouted  heartily  after  us  till 
we  were  through  the  bridge. 


CHANGED   TIMES 

'T^HERE  is  a  sense  in  which  those  mists 
never  rose  from  off  our  journey  ;  and 
from  that  time  forth  they  He  very  densely 
in  my  note-book.  As  long  as  the  Oise 
was  a  small  rural  river,  it  took  us  near 
by  people's  doors,  and  we  could  hold  a 
conversation  with  natives  in  the  riparian 
fields.  But  now  that  it  had  grown  so 
wide,  the  life  along  shore  passed  us  by  at 
a  distance.  It  was  the  same  difference 
as  between  a  great  public  highway  and  a 
country  bypith  that  wanders  in  and  out 
of  cottage  gardens.  We  now  lay  in  towns, 
where  nobody  troubled  us  with  questions  ; 
we  had  floated  into  civilised  life,  where 
people  pass  without  salutation.  In  sparsely 
inhabited  places,  we  make  all  we  can  of 
each  encounter;  but  when  it  comes  to  a 
cit}',  we  keep  to  ourselves,  and  never  speak 
unless  we  have   trodden  on  a  man's  toes. 


Changed  Times  171 

In  these  waters,  we  were  no  longer  strange 
birds,  and  nobody  supposed  we  had  trav- 
elled further  than  from  the  last  town.  I 
remember,  when  we  came  into  L' Isle  Adam, 
for  instance,  how  we  met  dozens  of  pleas- 
ure-boats outing  it  for  the  afternoon,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  distinguish  the  true 
voyager  from  the  amateur,  except,  perhaps, 
the  filthy  condition  of  my  sail.  The  com- 
pany in  one  boat  actually  thought  they 
recognized  me  for  a  neighbour.  Was  there 
ever  anything  more  wounding?  All  the 
romance  had  come  down  to  that.  Now, 
on  the  upper  Oise,  where  nothing  sailed 
as  a  general  thing  but  fish,  a  pair  of  canoe- 
ists could  not  be  thus  vulgarly  explained 
away ;  we  were  strange  and  picturesque 
intruders ;  and  out  of  people's  wonder, 
sprang  a  sort  of  light  and  passing  intimacy 
all  along  our  route.  There  is  nothing  but 
tit  for  tat  in  this  world,  though  some- 
times it  be  a  little  difificult  to  trace ;  for 
the  scores  are  older  than  we  ourselves,  and 
there  has  never  yet  been  a  settling-day 
since  things  were.     You  get  entertainment 


172  A  71  Inland  Voyage 

pretty  much  in  proportion  as  you  give.  As 
long  as  we  were  a  sort  of  odd  wanderers, 
to  be  stared  at  and  followed  like  a  quack 
doctor  or  a  caravan,  we  had  no  want  of 
amusement  in  return  ;  but  as  soon  as  we 
sank  into  commonplace  ourselves,  all  whom 
we  met  were  similarly  disenchanted.  And 
here  is  one  reason  of  a  dozen,  why  the 
world  is  dull  to  dull  persons. 

In  our  earlier  adventures  there  was  gen- 
erally something  to  do,  and  that  quickened 
us.  Even  the  showers  of  rain  had  a  revivi- 
fying effect,  and  shook  up  the  brain  from 
torpor.  But  now,  when  the  river  no  longer 
ran  in  a  proper  sense,  only  glided  seaward 
with  an  even,  outright,  but  imperceptible 
speed,  and  when  the  sky  smiled  upon  us 
day  after  day  without  variety,  we  began  to 
slip  into  that  golden  doze  of  the  mind 
which  follows  upon  much  exercise  in  the 
open  air.  I  have  stupefied  myself  in  this 
way  more  than  once  ;  indeed,  I  dearly  love 
the  feeling ;  but  I  never  had  it  to  the  same 
degree  as  when  paddling  down  the  Oise. 
It  was  the  apotheosis  of  stupidity. 


Changed  Times  173 

We  ceased  reading  entirely.  Sometimes 
when  I  found  a  new  paper,  I  took  a  partic- 
ular pleasure  in  reading  a  single  number 
of  the  current  novel  :  but  I  never  could 
bear  more  than  three  instalments  ;  and 
even  the  second  was  a  disappointment.  As 
soon  as  the  tale  became  in  any  way  perspic- 
uous, it  lost  all  merit  in  my  eyes  ;  only  a 
single  scene,  or,  as  is  the  way  with  these 
feuilletons,  half  a  scene,  without  antecedent 
or  consequence,  like  a  piece  of  a  dream,  had 
the  knack  of  fixing  my  interest.  The  less 
I  saw  of  the  novel,  the  better  I  liked  it  :  a 
pregnant  reflection.  But  for  the  most  part, 
as  I  said,  we  neither  of  us  read  anything 
in  the  world,  and  employed  the  very  little 
while  we  were  awake  between  bed  and  din- 
ner in  poring  upon  maps.  I  have  always 
been  fond  of  maps,  and  can  voyage  in  an 
atlas  with  the  greatest  enjoyment.  The 
names  of  places  are  singularly  inviting  ;  the 
contour  of  coasts  and  rivers  is  enthralling 
to  the  eye  ;  and  to  hit,  in  a  map,  upon  some 
place  you  have  heard  before,  makes  history 
a  new  possession.     But   we   thumbed  our 


174  An  Inland  Voyage 

charts,  on  these  evenings,  with  the  blankest 
unconcern.  We  cared  not  a  fraction  for 
this  place  or  that.  We  stared  at  the  sheet 
as  children  listen  to  their  rattle  ;  and  read 
the  names  of  towns  or  villages  to  forget 
them  again  at  once.  We  had  no  romance 
in  the  matter  ;  there  was  nobody  so  fancy- 
free.  If  you  had  taken  the  maps  away 
while  we  were  studying  them  most  intently, 
it  is  a  fair  bet  whether  we  might  not  have 
continued  to  study  the  table  with  the  same 
delight. 

About  one  thing  we  were  mightily  taken 
up,  and  that  was  eating.  I  think  I  made  a 
god  of  my  belly.  I  remember  dwelling  in 
imagination  upon  this  or  that  dish  till  my 
mouth  watered  ;  and  long  before  we  got  in 
for  the  night  my  appetite  was  a  clamant, 
instant  annoyance.  Sometimes  we  pad- 
dled alongside  for  awhile  and  whetted  each 
other  with  gastronomical  fancies  as  we 
went.  Cake  and  sherry,  a  homely  refec- 
tion, but  not  within  reach  upon  the  Oise, 
trotted  through  my  head  for  many  a  mile  ; 
and  once,  as  we  were  approaching  Verberie, 


Changed  Times  i75 

the  Cigarette  brought  my  heart  into  my 
mouth  by  the  suggestion  of  oyster  patties 
and  Sauterne. 

I  suppose  none  of  us  recognise  the  great 
part  that  is  played  in  life  by  eating  and 
drinking.  The  appetite  is  so  imperious, 
that  we  can  stomach  the  least  interesting 
viands,  and  pass  off  a  dinner  hour  thank- 
fully enough  on  bread  and  water  ;  just  as 
there  are  men  who  must  read  something, 
if  it  were  only  Bradshaiv  s  Guide.  But 
there  is  a  romance  about  the  matter  after 
all.  Probably  the  table  has  more  devotees 
than  love  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  food  is  much 
more  generally  entertaining  than  scenery. 
Do  you  give  in,  as  Walt  Whitman  would 
say,  that  you  are  any  the  less  immortal 
for  that  ?  The  true  materialism  is  to  be 
ashamed  of  what  we  are.  To  detect  the 
flavour  of  an  olive  is  no  less  a  piece  of 
human  perfection,  than  to  find  beauty  in 
the  colours  of  the  sunset. 

Canoeing  was  easy  work.  To  dip  the 
paddle  at  the  proper  inclination,  now  right, 
now  left ;  to  keep  the  head  down  stream  ; 


176  An  Inland  Voyage 

to  empty  the  little  pool  that  gathered  in 
the  lap  of  the  apron  ;  to  screw  up  the  eyes 
against  the  glittering  sparkles  of  sun  upon 
the  water  ;  or  now  and  again  to  pass  below 
the  whistling  tow-rope  of  the  Deo  Gratias 
of  Cond^,  or  the  Four  Sons  of  Aymon — there 
was  not  much  art  in  that ;  certain  silly 
muscles  managed  it  between  sleep  and 
waking ;  and  meanwhile  the  brain  had  a 
whole  holiday,  and  went  to  sleep.  We 
took  in,  at  a  glance,  the  larger  features  of 
the  scene ;  and  beheld,  with  half  an  eye, 
bloused  fishers  and  dabbling  washerwomen 
on  the  bank.  Now  and  again  we  might  be 
half  wakened  by  some  church  spire,  by  a 
leaping  fish,  or  by  a  trail  of  river  grass 
that  clung  about  the  paddle  and  had  to  be 
plucked  off  and  thrown  away.  But  these 
luminous  intervals  were  only  partially  lumi- 
nous. A  little  more  of  us  was  called  into 
action,  but  never  the  whole.  The  central 
bureau,  of  nerves,  what  in  some  moods  we 
call  Ourselves,  enjoyed  its  holiday  without 
disturbance,  like  a  Government  Ofifice. 
The    great    wheels   of    intelligence    turned 


Changed  Times  i77 

idly  in  the  head,  Hke  fly-wheels,  grinding 
no  grist.  I  have  gone  on  for  half  an  hour 
at  a  time,  counting  my  strokes  and  forget- 
ting the  hundreds.  I  flatter  myself  the 
beasts  that  perish  could  not  underbid  that, 
as  a  low  form  of  consciousness.  And  what 
a  pleasure  it  was !  What  a  hearty,  tolerant 
temper  did  it  bring  about  !  There  is  noth- 
ing captious  about  a  man  who  has  attained  to 
this,  the  one  possible  apotheosis  in  life,  the 
Apotheosis  of  Stupidity  ;  and  he  begins  to 
feel  dignified  and  longevous  like  a  tree. 

There  was  one  odd  piece  of  practical 
metaphysics  which  accompanied  what  I 
may  call  the  depth,  if  I  must  not  call  it  the 
intensity,  of  my  abstraction.  What  philos- 
ophers call  nic  and  7iot  me,  ego  and  non  ego, 
pre-occupied  me  whether  I  would  or  no. 
There  was  less  me  and  more  not  me  than  I 
was  accustomed  to  expect.  I  looked  on 
upon  somebody  else,  who  managed  the 
paddling;  I  was  aware  of  somebody  else's 
feet  against  the  stretcher ;  m}^  own  body 
seemed  to  have  no  more  intimate  relation 
to  me  than  the  canoe,  or  the  river,  or  the 

12 


1/8  All  Inland  Voyage 

river  banks.  Nor  this  alone :  something 
inside  my  mind,  a  part  of  my  brain,  a 
province  of  my  proper  being,  had  thrown 
off  allegiance  and  set  up  for  itself,  or  per- 
haps for  the  somebody  else  who  did  the 
paddling.  I  had  dwindled  into  quite  a 
little  thing  in  a  corner  of  myself.  I  was 
isolated  in  my  own  skull.  Thoughts  pre- 
sented themselves  unbidden  ;  they  were 
not  my  thoughts,  they  were  plainly  some- 
one else's  ;  and  I  considered  them  like  a 
part  of  the  landscape.  I  take  it,  in  short, 
that  I  was  about  as  near  Nirvana  as  would 
be  convenient  in  practical  life ;  and  if  this 
be  so,  I  make  the  Buddhists  my  sincere 
compliments ;  'tis  an  agreeable  state,  not 
very  consistent  with  mental  brilliancy,  not 
exactly  profitable  in  a  money  point  of  view, 
but  very  calm,  golden  and  incurious,  and 
one  that  sets  a  man  superior  to  alarms. 
It  may  be  best  figured  by  supposing  your- 
self to  get  dead  drunk,  and  yet  keep  sober 
to  enjoy  it.  I  have  a  notion  that  open 
air  labourers  must  spend  a  large  portion  of 
their  days  in  this  ecstatic  stupor,  which  ex- 


Changed  Times  i79 

plains  their  high  composure  and  endurance. 
A  pity  to  go  to  the  expense  of  laudanum, 
when  here  is  a  better  paradise  for  nothing  ! 
This  frame  of  mind  was  the  great  exploit 
of  our  voyage,  take  it  all  in  all.  It  was 
the  farthest  piece  of  travel  accomplished. 
Indeed,  it  lies  so  far  from  beaten  paths  of 
language,  that  I  despair  of  getting  the 
reader  into  sympathy  with  the  smiling, 
complacent  idiocy  of  my  condition  ;  when 
ideas  came  and  went  like  motes  in  a  sun- 
beam ;  when  trees  and  church  spires  along 
the  bank  surged  up,  from  time  to  time 
into  my  notice,  like  solid  objects  through 
a  rolling  cloudland  ;  when  the  rhythmical 
swish  of  boat  and  paddle  in  the  water 
became  a  cradle-song  to  lull  my  thoughts 
asleep  ;  when  a  piece  of  mud  on  the  deck 
was  sometimes  an  intolerable  eyesore,  and 
sometimes  quite  a  companion  for  mc,  and 
the  object  of  pleased  consideration  ; — 
and  all  the  time,  with  the  river  running 
and  the  shores  changing  upon  either  hand, 
I  kept  counting  my  strokes  and  forgetting 
the  hundreds,  the  happiest  animal  in  France. 


DOWN  THE  OlSE:  CHURCH  INTERIORS 

Al/E  made  our  first  stage  below  Com- 
picgne  to  Pont  Sainte  Maxence.  I  was 
abroad  a  little  after  six  the  next  morning. 
The  air  was  biting  and  smelt  of  frost.  In 
an  open  place,  a  score  of  women  wrangled 
together  over  the  day's  market ;  and  the 
noise  of  their  negotiation  sounded  thin  and 
querulous  like  that  of  sparrows  on  a  win- 
ter's morning.  The  rare  passengers  blew 
into  their  hands,  and  shuffled  in  their 
wooden  shoes  to  set  the  blood  agog.  The 
streets  were  full  of  icy  shadow,  although 
the  chimneys  were  smoking  overhead  in 
golden  sunshine.  If  you  wake  early  enough 
at  this  season  of  the  year,  you  may  get  up 
in  December  to  break  your  fast  \n  June. 

I  found  my  way  to  the  church  ;  for  there 
is  always  something  to  see  about  a  church, 
whether  living  worshippers  or  dead  men's 
tombs  ;  you  find  there  the  deadliest  earn- 


Dow7i  the  Oise  i8i 

est,  and  the  hollowest  deceit  ;  and  even 
where  it  is  not  a  piece  of  history,  it  will  be 
certain  to  leak  out  sonne  contemporary  gos- 
sip. It  was  scarcely  so  cold  in  the  church 
as  it  was  without,  but  it  looked  colder. 
The  white  nave  was  positively  arctic  to  the 
eye  ;  and  the  tawdriness  of  a  continental 
altar  looked  more  forlorn  than  usual  in  the 
solitude  and  the  bleak  air.  Two  priests  sat 
in  the  chancel,  reading  and  waiting  peni- 
tents ;  and  out  in  the  nave,  one  very  old 
woman  was  engaged  in  her  devotions.  It 
was  a  wonder  how  she  was  able  to  pass  her 
beads  when  healthy  young  people  were 
breathing  in  their  palms  and  slapping  their 
chest  ;  but  though  this  concerned  me,  I  was 
yet  more  dispirited  by  the  nature  of  her 
exercises.  She  went  from  chair  to  chair, 
from  altar  to  altar,  circumnavigating  the 
church.  To  each  shrine,  she  dedicated  an 
equal  number  of  beads  and  an  equal  length 
of  time.  Like  a  prudent  capitalist  with  a 
somewhat  cynical  view  of  the  commercial 
prospect,  she  desired  to  place  her  supplica- 
tions in  a  great  variety  of  heavenly  sccur- 


1 82  An  Inland  Voyage 

ities.  She  would  risk  nothing  on  the  credit 
of  any  single  intercessor.  Out  of  the  whole 
company  of  saints  and  angels,  not  one  but 
was  to  suppose  liimself  her  champion  elect 
against  the  Great  Assizes !  I  could  only 
think  of  it  as  a  dull,  transparent  jugglery, 
based  upon  unconscious  unbelief. 

She  was  as  dead  an  old  woman  as  ever  I 
saw ;  no  more  than  bone  and  parchment, 
curiously  put  together.  Her  eyes,  with 
which  she  interrogated  mine,  were  vacant 
of  sense.  It  depends  on  what  you  call 
seeing,  whether  you  might  not  call  her 
blind.  Perhaps  she  had  known  love  :  per- 
haps borne  children,  suckled  them  and 
given  them  pet  names.  But  now  that  was 
all  gone  by,  and  had  left  her  neither  hap- 
pier nor  wiser;  and  the  best  she  could  do 
with  her  mornings  was  to  come  up  here 
into  the  cold  church  and  juggle  for  a  slice 
of  heaven.  It  was  not  without  a  gulp  that 
I  escaped  into  the  streets  and  the  keen 
morning  air.  Morning  ?  why,  how  tired  of 
it  she  would  be  before  night !  and  if  she  did 
not  sleep,  how  then  ?     It  is  fortunate  that 


Down  the  Oise  183 

not  many  of  us  are  brought  up  publicly  to 
justify  our  lives  at  the  bar  of  three  score 
years  and  ten  ;  fortunate  that  such  a  num- 
ber are  knocked  opportunely  on  the  head 
in  what  they  call  the  flower  of  their  years, 
and  go  away  to  suffer  for  their  follies  in  pri- 
vate somewhere  else.  Otherwise,  between 
sick  children  and  discontented  old  folk,  we 
might  be  put  out  of  all  conceit  of  life. 

I  had  need  of  all  my  cerebral  hygiene 
during  that  day's  paddle  :  the  old  devotee 
stuck  in  my  throat  sorely.  But  I  was 
soon  in  the  seventh  heaven  of  stupidity  ; 
and  knew  nothing  but  that  somebody  was 
paddling  a  canoe,  while  I  was  counting  his 
strokes  and  forgetting  the  hundreds.  I 
used  sometimes  to  be  afraid  I  should  re- 
member the  hundreds ;  which  would  have 
made  a  toil  of  a  pleasure  ;  but  the  terror 
Avas  chimerical,  they  went  out  of  my  mind 
by  enchantment,  and  I  knew  no  more  than 
the  man  in  the  moon  about  my  only  occu- 
pation. 

At  Creil,  where  we  stopped  to  lunch,  we 
left  the  canoes  in  another  floating  lavatory, 


1 84  All  Inland  Voyage 

which,  as  it  was  high  noon,  was  packed 
with  washerwomen,  red-handed  and  loud- 
voiced  ;  and  they  and  their  broad  jokes  are 
about  all  I  remember  of  the  place.  I  could 
look  up  my  history  books,  if  you  were  very 
anxious,  and  tell  you  a  date  or  two ;  for  it 
figured  rather  largely  in  the  English  wars. 
But  I  prefer  to  mention  a  girls'  boarding- 
school,  which  had  an  interest  for  us  be- 
cause it  was  a  girls'  boarding-school,  and 
because  we  imagined  we  had  rather  an 
interest  for  it.  At  least — there  were  the 
girls  about  the  garden  ;  and  here  were  we 
on  the  river  ;  and  there  was  more  than  one 
handkerchief  waved  as  we  went  by.  It 
caused  quite  a  stir  in  my  heart ;  and  yet 
how  we  should  have  wearied  and  despised 
each  other,  these  girls  and  I,  if  we  had  been 
introduced  at  a  croquet  party  !  But  this  is 
a  fashion  I  love  :  to  kiss  the  hand  or  wave 
a  handkerchief  to  people  I  shall  never  sec 
again,  to  play  with  possibility,  and  knock 
in  a  peg  for  fancy  to  hang  upon.  It  gives 
the  traveller  a  jog,  reminds  him  that  he  is 
not   a  traveller    everywhere,   and    that   his 


Down  the  Oise  185 

journey  is    no  more   than    a   siesta  by  the 
way  on  the  real  march  of  Hfe. 

The  church  at  Creil  was  a  nondescript 
place  in  the  inside,  splashed  with  gaudy 
lights  from  the  windows,  and  picked  out 
with  medallions  of  the  Dolorous  Way.  But 
there  was  one  oddity,  in  the  way  of  an  ex 
voto,  which  pleased  me  hugely  :  a  faithful 
model  of  a  canal  boat,  swung  from  the 
vault,  with  a  written  aspiration  that  God 
should  conduct  the  Saint  Nicolas  of  Creil 
to  a  good  haven.  The  thing  was  neatly 
executed,  and  would  have  made  the  delight 
of  a  party  of  boys  on  the  waterside.  But 
what  tickled  me  was  the  gravity  of  the 
peril  to  be  conjured.  You  might  hang  up 
the  model  of  a  sea-going  ship,  and  wel- 
come :  one  that  is  to  plough  a  furrow  round 
the  world,  and  visit  the  tropic  or  the  frosty 
poles,  runs  dangers  that  are  well  worth  a 
candle  and  a  mass.  But  the  Saint  Nicolas 
of  Creil,  which  was  to  be  tugged  for  some 
ten  years  by  patient  draught  horses,  in  a 
weedy  canal,  with  the  poplars  chattering 
overhead,  and  the  skipper  whistling  at  the 


1 86  An  Inland  Voyage 

tiller  ;  which  was  to  do  all  its  errands  in 
green,  inland  places,  and  never  got  out  of 
sight  of  a  village  belfry  in  all  its  cruising  ; 
why,  you  would  have  thought  if  anything 
could  be  done  without  the  intervention  of 
Providence,  it  would  be  that  !  But  perhaps 
the  skipper  was  a  humourist  :  or  perhaps  a 
prophet,  reminding  people  of  the  serious- 
ness of  life  by  this  preposterous  token. 

At  Creil,  as  at  Noyon,  Saint  Joseph 
seemed  a  favourite  saint  on  the  score  of 
punctuality.  Day  and  hour  can  be  speci- 
fied ;  and  grateful  people  do  not  fail  to 
specify  them  on  a  votive  tablet,  when 
prayers  have  been  punctually  and  neatly 
answered.  Whenever  time  is  a  considera- 
tion. Saint  Joseph  is  the  proper  intermedi- 
ary. I  took  a  sort  of  pleasure  in  observing 
the  vogue  he  had  in  France,  for  the  good 
man  plays  a  very  small  part  in  my  religion 
at  home.  Yet  I  could  not  help  fearing 
that,  where  the  Saint  is  so  much  com- 
mended for  exactitude,  he  will  be  expected 
to  be  very  grateful  for  his  tablet. 

This    is    foolishness    to    us    Protestants; 


Doiun  the  Oise  187 

and  not  of  great  importance  anyway. 
Whether  people's  gratitude  for  the  good 
gifts  that  come  to  them,  be  wisely  con- 
ceived or  dutifully  expressed,  is  a  second- 
ary matter,  after  all,  so  long  as  they  feel 
gratitude.  The  true  ignorance  is  when  a 
man  does  not  know  that  he  has  received 
a  good  gift,  or  begins  to  imagine  that  he 
has  got  it  for  himself.  The  self-made  man 
is  the  funniest  windbag  after  all  I  There  is 
a  marked  difference  between  decreeing 
light  in  chaos,  and  lighting  the  gas  in  a 
metropolitan  back-parlour  with  a  box  of 
patent  matches  ;  and  do  what  we  will,  there 
is  always  something  made  to  our  hand,  if 
it  were  only  our  fingers. 

But  there  was  something  worse  than  fool- 
ishness placarded  in  Creil  Church.  The 
Association  of  the  Living  Rosary  (of  which 
I  had  never  previously  heard)  is  responsible 
for  that.  This  association  was  founded, 
according  to  the  printed  advertisement,  by 
a  brief  of  Pope  Gregory  Sixteenth,  on  the 
17th  of  Ja?mary,  1832  :  according  to  a 
coloured  bas  relief,  it  seems  to  have  been 


1 88  An  Inland  Voyage 

founded,  sometime  or  other,  by  the  Virgin 
giving  one  rosary  to  Saint  Dominic,  and 
the  Infant  Saviour  giving  another  to  Saint 
Catherine  of  Sienna.  Pope  Gregory  is  not 
so  imposing,  but  he  is  nearer  hand.  I 
could  not  distinctly  make  out  whether  the 
association  was  entirely  devotional,  or  had 
an  eye  to  good  works ;  at  least  it  is  highly 
organized  :  the  names  of  fourteen  matrons 
and  misses  were  filled  in  for  each  week  of 
the  month  as  associates,  with  one  other, 
generally  a  married  woman,  at  the  top  for 
Zdatrice :  the  choragus  of  the  band.  In- 
dulgences, plenary  and  partial,  follow  on 
the  performance  of  the  duties  of  the  asso- 
ciation. "  The  partial  indulgences  are  at- 
tached to  the  recitation  of  the  rosary."  On 
"  the  recitation  of  the  required  dizainc,"  a 
partial  indulgence  promptly  follows.  When 
people  serve  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  with 
a  pass-book  in  their  hands,  I  should  always 
be  afraid  lest  they  should  carry  the  same 
commercial  spirit  into  their  dealings  with 
their  fellow-men,  which  would  make  a  sad 
and  sordid  business  of  this  life. 


Down  the  Oise  189 

There  is  one  more  article,  however,  of 
happier  import.  "All  these  indulgences," 
it  appeared,  "  are  applicable  to  souls  in 
purgatory."  For  God's  sake,  ye  ladies  of 
Creil,  apply  them  all  to  the  souls  in  purga- 
tory without  delay  I  Burns  would  take  no 
hire  for  his  last  songs,  preferring  to  serve 
his  country  out  of  unmixed  love.  Suppose 
you  were  to  imitate  the  exciseman,  mes- 
dames,  and  even  if  the  souls  in  purgatory 
were  not  greatly  bettered,  some  souls  in 
Creil  upon  the  Oise  would  find  themselves 
none  the  worse  either  here  or  hereafter. 

I  cannot  help  wondering,  as  I  transcribe 
these  notes,  whether  a  Protestant  born 
and  bred  is  in  a  fit  state  to  understand 
these  signs,  and  do  them  what  justice  they 
deserve  ;  and  I  cannot  help  answering  that 
he  is  not.  They  cannot  look  so  merely 
ugly  and  mean  to  the  faithful  as  they  do 
to  me.  I  see  that  as  clearly  as  a  proposi- 
tion in  Euclid.  For  these  believers  are 
neither  weak  nor  wicked.  They  can  put 
up  their  tablet  commending  Saint  Joseph 
for  his  despatch,  as  if  he  were  still  a  village 


190  An  Inland  Voyage 

carpenter ;  they  can  "  recite  the  required 
dizaine^'^  and  metaphorically  pocket  the 
indulgence,  as  if  they  had  done  a  job  for 
heaven  ;  and  then  they  can  go  out  and 
look  down  unabashed  upon  this  wonderful 
river  flowing  by,  and  up  without  confusion 
at  the  pin-point  stars,  which  are  themselves 
great  worlds  full  of  flowing  rivers  greater 
than  the  Oise.  I  see  it  as  plainly,  I  say, 
as  a  proposition  in  Euclid,  that  my  Protes- 
tant mind  has  missed  the  point,  and  that 
there  goes  with  these  deformities  some 
higher  and  more  religious  spirit  than  I 
dream. 

I  wonder  if  other  people  would  make 
the  same  allowances  for  me?  Like  the 
ladies  of  Creil,  having  recited  my  rosary  of 
toleration,  I  look  for  my  indulgence  on  the 
spot. 


PRECY  AND  THE  MARIONETTES 

\A7E  made  Prccy  about  sundown.  The 
plain  is  rich  with  tufts  of  poplar.  In 
a  wide,  luminous  curve,  the  Oise  lay  under 
the  hill  side.  A  faint  mist  began  to  rise 
and  confound  the  different  distances  to- 
gether. There  was  not  a  sound  audible 
but  that  of  the  sheep-bells  in  some  mead- 
ows by  the  river,  and  the  creaking  of  a 
cart  down  the  long  road  that  descends  the 
hill.  The  villas  in  their  gardens,  the  shops 
along  the  street,  all  seemed  to  have  been 
deserted  the  day  before  ;  and  I  felt  inclined 
to  walk  discreetly  as  one  feels  in  a  silent 
forest.  All  of  a  sudden,  we  came  round  a 
corner,  and  there,  in  a  little  green  round 
the  church,  Vv'as  a  bevy  of  girls  in  Parisian 
costumes  playing  croquet.  Their  laughter 
and  the  hollow  sound  of  ball  and  mallet, 
made  a  cheery  stir  in  the  neighbourhood  ; 
and  the  look  of  these  slim  figures,  all  cor- 


192  An  Inland  Voyage 

seted  and  ribboned,  produced  an  answer- 
able disturbance  in  our  hearts.  We  were 
within  sniff  of  Paris,  it  seemed.  And  here 
were  females  of  our  own  species  playing 
croquet,  just  as  if  Precy  had  been  a  place 
in  real  life,  instead  of  a  stage  in  the  fairy 
land  of  travel.  For,  to  be  frank,  the  peas- 
ant woman  is  scarcely  to  be  counted  as  a 
woman  at  all,  and  after  having  passed  by 
such  a  succession  of  people  in  petticoats 
digging  and  hoeing  and  making  dinner,  this 
company  of  coquettes  under  arms  made 
quite  a  surprising  feature  in  the  landscape, 
and  convinced  us  at  once  of  being  fallible 
males. 

The  inn  at  Prc'cy  is  the  worst  inn  in 
France.  Not  even  in  Scof/andhave  I  found 
worse  fare.  It  was  kept  by  a  brother  and 
sister,  neither  of  whom  was  out  of  their 
teens.  The  sister,  so  to  speak,  prepared  a 
meal  for  us  ;  and  the  brother,  who  had  been 
tippling,  came  in  and  brought  with  him  a 
tipsy  butcher,  to  entertain  us  as  we  ate. 
We  found  pieces  of  loo-warm  pork  among 
the  salad,  and  pieces  of  unknown  yielding 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      193 

substance  in  the  ragoiU.  The  butcher  en- 
tertained us  with  pictures  of  Parisian  hfe, 
with  which  he  professed  himself  well  ac- 
quainted ;  the  brother  sitting  the  while  on 
the  edge  of  the  billiard  table,  toppling  pre- 
cariously, and  sucking  the  stump  of  a  cigar. 
In  the  midst  of  these  diversions,  bang  went 
a  drum  past  the  house,  and  a  hoarse  voice 
began  issuing  a  proclamation.  It  was  a 
man  with  marionettes  announcing  a  per- 
formance for  that  evening. 

He  had  set  up  his  caravan  and  lighted 
his  candles  on  another  part  of  the  girls' 
croquet  green,  under  one  of  those  open 
sheds  which  are  so  common  in  France  to 
shelter  markets  ;  and  he  and  his  wife,  by 
the  time  we  strolled  up  there,  were  trying 
to  keep  order  with  the  audience. 

It  was  the  most  absurd  contention.  The 
show-people  had  set  out  a  certain  number 
of  benches ;  and  all  who  sat  upon  them 
were  to  pay  a  couple  of  sous  for  the  accom- 
modation. They  were  always  (piitc  full — 
a  bumper  house — as   long   as  nothing  was 

going   forward ;    but    let    the    show-woman 
13 


194  An  Inland  Voyage 

appear  with  an  eye  to  a  collection,  and  at 
the  first  rattle  of  her  tambourine,  the  audi- 
ence slipped  off  the  seats,  and  stood  round 
on  the  outside  with  their  hands  in  their 
pockets.  It  certainly  would  have  tried 
an  angel's  temper.  The  showman  roared 
from  the  proscenium  ;  he  had  been  all  over 
France,  and  nowhere,  nowhere,  "  not  even 
on  the  borders  of  Gerinany,"  had  he  met 
with  such  misconduct.  Such  thieves  and 
rogues  and  rascals,  as  he  called  them  !  And 
every  now  and  again,  the  wife  issued  on 
another  round,  and  added  her  shrill  quota 
to  the  tirade.  I  remarked  here,  as  else- 
where, how  far  more  copious  is  the  female 
mind  in  the  material  of  insult.  The  audi- 
ence laughed  in  high  good  humour  over  the 
man's  declamations  ;  but  they  bridled  and 
cried  aloud  under  the  woman's  pungent 
sallies.  She  picked  out  the  sore  points. 
She  had  the  honour  of  the  village  at  her 
mercy.  Voices  answered  her  angrily  out 
of  the  crowd,  and  received  a  smarting 
retort  for  their  trouble.  A  couple  of  old 
ladies  beside  me,  who   heid   duly  paid   for 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      19S 

their  seats,  waxed  very  red  and  indignant, 
and  discoursed  to  each  other  audibly  about 
the  impudence  of  these  mountebanks  ;  but 
as  soon  as  the  show-woman  caught  a  whis- 
per of  this,  she  was  down  upon  them  with 
a  swoop  :  if  mesdames  could  persuade  their 
neighbours  to  act  with  common  honesty, 
the  mountebanks,  she  assured  them,  would 
be  polite  enough:  mesdames  had  probably 
had  their  bowl  of  soup,  and  perhaps  a  glass 
of  wine  that  evening;  the  mountebanks 
also  had  a  taste  for  soup,  and  did  not 
choose  to  have  their  little  earnings  stolen 
from  them  before  their  eyes.  Once,  things 
came  as  far  as  a  brief  personal  encounter 
between  the  showman  and  some  lads,  in 
which  the  former  went  down  as  readily  as 
one  of  his  own  marionettes  to  a  peal  of 
jeering  laughter. 

I  was  a  good  deal  astonished  at  this 
scene,  because  I  am  pretty  well  acquainted 
with  the  ways  of  French  strollers,  more  or 
less  artistic  ;  and  have  always  found  them 
singularly  pleasing.  Any  stroller  must  be 
dear  to. the  right-thinking  heart ;  if  it  were 


19^  An  Inland  Voyage 

only  as  a  living  protest  against  offices  and 
the  mercantile  spirit,  and  as  something  to 
remind  us,  that  life  is  not  by  necessity  the 
kind  of  thing  we  generally  make  it.  Even 
a  German  band,  if  you  see  it  leaving  town 
in  the  early  morning  for  a  campaign  in 
country  places,  among  trees  and  meadows, 
has  a  romantic  flavour  for  the  imagination. 
There  is  nobody,  under  thirty,  so  dead  but 
his  heart  will  stir  a  little  at  sight  of  a  gyp- 
sies' camp.  "  We  are  not  cotton-spinners 
all ;  "  or,  at  least,  not  all  through.  There 
is  some  life  in  humanity  yet :  and  youth 
will  now  and  again  find  a  brave  word  to  say 
in  dispraise  of  riches,  and  throw  up  a  situa- 
tion to  go  strolling  with  a  knapsack. 

An  Englishman  has  always  special  facili- 
ties for  intercourse  with  French  gymnasts  ; 
for  England  is  the  natural  home  of  gym- 
nasts. This  or  that  fellow,  in  his  tights 
and  spangles,  is  sure  to  know  a  word  or  two 
of  English,  to  have  drunk  English  aff-n-aff, 
and  perhaps  performed  in  an  English 
music-hall.  He  is  a  countryman  of  mine 
by  profession.     He  leaps,  like  the  Belgian 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      197 

boating  men,  to  the  notion  that  I  must  be 
an  athlete  myself. 

But  the  gymnast  is  not  my  favourite  ;  he 
has  little  or  no  tincture  of  the  artist  in  his 
composition  ;  his  soul  is  small  and  pedes- 
trian, for  the  most  part,  since  his  profession 
makes  no  call  upon  it,  and  does  not  accus- 
tom him  to  high  ideas.  But  if  a  man  is 
only  so  much  of  an  actor  that  he  can 
stumble  through  a  farce,  he  is  made  free 
of  a  new  order  of  thoughts.  He  has  some- 
thing else  to  think  about  beside  the 
money-box.  He  has  a  pride  of  his  own, 
and,  what  is  of  far  more  importance,  he  has 
an  aim  before  him  that  he  can  never  quite 
attain.  He  has  gone  upon  a  pilgrimage 
that  will  last  him  his  life-long,  because 
there  is  no  end  to  it  short  of  perfection. 
He  will  better  upon  himself  a  little  day  by 
day  ;  or  even  if  he  has  given  up  the  attempt, 
he  will  always  remember  that  once  upon  a 
time  he  had  conceived  this  high  ideal,  that 
once  upon  a  time  he  had  fallen  in  love  with 
a  star.  "  'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and 
lost."     Although    the   moon    should    have 


198  An  Inland  Voyage 

nothing  to  say  to  Endyinion,  although  he 
should  settle  down  with  Audrey  and  feed 
pigs,  do  you  not  think  he  would  move  with 
a  better  grace,  and  cherish  higher  thoughts 
to  the  end?  The  louts  he  meets  at  church 
never  had  a  fancy  above  Audreys  snood; 
but  there  is  a  reminiscence  in  Endymion  s 
heart  that,  like  a  spice,  keeps  it  fresh  and 
haughty. 

To  be  even  one  of  the  outskirters  of  art, 
leaves  a  fine  stamp  on  a  man's  counte- 
nance. I  remember  once  dining  with  a 
party  in  the  inn  at  Chateau  Landon.  Most 
of  them  were  unmistakable  bagmen ;  others 
well-to-do  peasantry ;  but  there  was  one 
young  fellow  in  a  blouse,  whose  face  stood 
out  from  among  the  rest  surprisingly.  It 
looked  more  finished  ;  more  of  the  spirit 
looked  out  through  it;  it  had  a  living, 
expressive  air,  and  you  could  see  that  his 
eyes  took  things  in.  My  companion  and 
I  wondered  greatly  who  and  what  he  could 
be.  It  was  fair  time  in  Chateau  Landon^ 
and  when  we  went  along  to  the  booths, 
we  had   our  question   answered  ;  for  there 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      199 

was  our  friend  busily  fiddling  for  the 
peasants  to  caper  to.  He  was  a  wander- 
ing violinist. 

A  troop  of  strollers  once  came  to  the 
inn  where  I  was  staying,  in  the  department 
of  Seme  et  Marne.  There  was  a  father 
and  mother ;  two  daughters,  brazen,  blowsy 
huzzies,  who  sang  and  acted,  without  an 
idea  of  how  to  set  about  either ;  and  a 
dark  young  man,  like  a  tutor,  a  recalci- 
trant house-painter,  who  sang  and  acted 
not  amiss.  The  mother  was  the  genius  of 
the  party,  so  far  as  genius  can  be  spoken 
of  with  regard  to  such  a  pack  of  incompe- 
tent humbugs  ;  and  her  husband  could  not 
find  words  to  express  his  admiration  for  her 
comic  countryman.  "  You  should  see  my 
old  woman,"  said  he,  and  nodded  his  beery 
countenance.  One  night,  they  performed 
in  the  stable-yard,  with  flaring  lamps  : 
a  wretched  exhibition,  coldly  looked  upon 
by  a  village  audience.  Next  night,  as 
soon  as  the  lamps  were  lighted,  there  came 
a  plump  of  rain,  and  they  had  to  sweep 
away  their  baggage  as  fast  as  possible,  and 


200  A  71  Inland  Voyage 

make  off  to  the  barn  where  they  harboured, 
cold,  wet,  and  supperless.  In  the  morning, 
a  dear  friend  of  mine,  who  has  as  warm  a 
heart  for  strollers  as  I  have  myself,  made 
a  little  collection,  and  sent  it  by  my  hands 
to  comfort  them  for  their  disappointment. 
I  gave  it  to  the  father;  he  thanked  me 
cordially,  and  we  drank  a  cup  together  in 
the  kitchen,  talking  of  roads,  and  audi- 
ences, and  hard  times. 

When  I  was  going,  up  got  my  old 
stroller,  and  off  with  his  hat.  "  I  am 
afraid,"  said  he,  "  that  Monsieur  will  think 
me  altogether  a  beggar  ;  but  I  have  an- 
other demand  to  make  upon  him."  I  began 
to  hate  him  on  the  spot.  "  We  play  again 
to-night,"  he  went  on.  "  Of  course,  I  shall 
refuse  to  accept  any  more  money  from 
Monsieur  and  his  friends,  who  have  been 
already  so  liberal.  But  our  programme  of 
to-night  is  something  truly  creditable  ;  and 
I  cling  to  the  idea  that  Monsieur  will  honour 
us  with  his  presence."  And  then,  with  a 
shrug  and  a  smile  :  "  Monsieur  understands 
— the    vanity    of    an    artist  !  "       Save    the 


Prccy  and  the  Marionettes      201 

mark !  The  vanity  of  an  artist !  That  is 
the  kind  of  thing  that  reconciles  me  to  hfe : 
a  ragged,  tippHng,  incompetent  old  rogue, 
with  the  manners  of  a  gentleman,  and  the 
vanity  of  an  artist,  to  keep  up  his  self- 
respect  ! 

But  the  man  after  my  own  heart  is  M.  de 
Vauversin.  It  is  nearly  two  years  since  I 
saw  him  first,  and  indeed  I  hope  I  may  see 
him  often  again.  Here  is  his  first  pro- 
gramme, as  I  found  it  on  the  breakfast 
table,  and  have  kept  it  ever  since  as  a  relic 
of  bright  days  : 

"  Mesdames  et  Messieurs, 

"  Mademoiselle  Ferrario  et  M.  de 
Vauversin  auront  I'honneur  de  chanter  ce 
soir  les  morceaux  suivants. 

"  Mademoiselle  Ferrario  chantera  —  Mi- 
gnon — Oiseaux  Lagers — France — Dcs  Fraii- 
^ais  dorment  la  —  Le  chdteaii  bleu  —  Ok 
voulez-vous  alter  ? 

"  M.  de  Vauversin — Madame  Fontaine  et 
M.  Robinet — Les  ploiigeurs  h  clieval^Le 
Mari  m^content —  Tais-toi,  gamin — Mon  voi- 


202  All  Inland  Voyage 

sin  r original — Heiireux  conime  qa — Comme 
on  est  tronipdy 

They  made  a  stage  at  one  end  of  the 
salle-a-manger .  And  what  a  sight  it  was 
to  see  M.  de  Vauversin,  with  a  cigarette  in 
his  mouth,  twanging  a  guitar,  and  follow- 
ing Mademoiselle  Fcrrario  s  eyes  with  the 
obedient,  kindly  look  of  a  dog !  The  enter- 
tainment wound  up  with  a  tombola,  or 
auction  of  lottery  tickets :  an  admirable 
amusement,  with  all  the  excitement  of 
gambling,  and  no  hope  of  gain  to  make 
you  ashamed  of  your  eagerness ;  for  there, 
all  is  loss  ;  you  make  haste  to  be  out  of 
pocket ;  it  is  a  competition  who  shall  lose 
most  money  for  the  benefit  of  M.  de  Vau- 
versin  and  Mademoiselle  Fcrrario. 

M.  de  Vaiiversin  is  a  small  man,  with  a 
pfreat  head  of  black  hair,  a  vivacious  and 
engaging  air,  and  a  smile  that  would  be 
delightful  if  he  had  better  teeth.  He  was 
once  an  actor  in  the  CJidtelet ;  but  he  con- 
tracted a  nervous  affection  from  the  heat 
and  glare  of  the  footlights,  which  unfitted 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      203 

him  for  the  stage.  At  this  crisis  Mademoi- 
selle Ferrario,  otherwise  Mademoiselle  Rita 
of  the  Alcazar,  agreed  to  share  his  wander- 
ing fortunes.  "  I  could  never  forget  the 
generosity  of  that  lady,"  said  he.  He 
wears  trousers  so  tight  that  it  has  long 
been  a  problem  to  all  who  knew  him  how 
he  manages  to  get  in  and  out  of  them. 
He  sketches  a  little  in  water-colours;  he 
writes  verses ;  he  is  the  most  patient  of 
fishermen,  and  spent  long  days  at  the 
bottom  of  the  inn-garden  fruitlessly  dab- 
bling a  line  in  the  clear  river. 

You  should  hear  him  recounting  his 
experiences  over  a  bottle  of  wine  ;  such 
a  pleasant  vein  of  talk  as  he  has,  with  a 
ready  smile  at  his  own  mishaps,  and  every 
now  and  then  a  sudden  gravity,  like  a  man 
who  should  hear  the  surf  roar  while  he 
was  telling  the  perils  of  the  deep.  For 
it  was  no  longer  ago  than  last  night,  per- 
haps, that  the  receipts  only  amounted  to  a 
franc  and  a  half,  to  cover  three  francs  of 
railway  fare  and  two  of  board  and  lodging. 
The    Maire,    a    man    worth    a    million    of 


204  All  hiland  Voyage 

money,  sat  in  the  front  seat,  repeatedly 
applauding  Mdlle.  Ferrario,  and  yet  gave  no 
more  than  three  sous  the  whole  evenine. 
Local  authorities  look  with  such  an  evil  eye 
upon  the  strolling  artist.  Alas  !  I  know  it 
well,  who  have  been  myself  taken  for  one, 
and  pitilessly  incarcerated  on  the  strength 
of  the  misapprehension.  Once,  M.  de  Vau- 
versin  visited  a  commissary  of  police  for 
permission  to  sing.  The  commissary,  who 
was  smoking  at  his  ease,  politely  doffed 
his  hat  upon  the  singer's  entrance.  "  Mr. 
Commissary,"  he  began,  "  I  am  an  artist." 
And  on  went  the  commissary's  hat  again. 
No  courtesy  for  the  companions  of  Apollo  ! 
"  They  are  as  degraded  as  that,"  said  M. 
de  Vauversin,  with  a  sweep  of  his  cigarette. 
But  what  pleased  me  most  was  one  out- 
break of  his,  when  we  had  been  talking  all 
the  evening  of  the  rubs,  indignities,  and 
pinchings  of  his  wandering  life.  Some 
one  said,  it  would  be  better  to  have  a 
million  of  money  down,  and  Mdlle.  Fer- 
rario admitted  that  she  would  prefer  that 
mightily.      ''Eh   bien,    nioi  71011; — not    I," 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      205 

cried  De  Vauversin,  striking  the  table  with 
his  hand.  "  If  anyone  is  a  failure  in  the 
world,  is  it  not  I  ?  I  had  an  art,  in  which 
I  have  done  things  well — as  well  as  some — 
better  perhaps  than  others  ;  and  now  it  is 
closed  against  me.  I  must  go  about  the 
country  gathering  coppers  and  singing 
nonsense.  Do  you  think  I  regret  my  life? 
Do  you  think  I  would  rather  be  a  fat 
burgess,  like  a  calf  ?  Not  I  !  I  have  had 
moments  when  I  have  been  applauded  on 
the  boards  :  I  think  nothing  of  that  ;  but 
I  have  known  in  my  own  mind  sometimes, 
when  I  had  not  a  clap  from  the  whole 
house,  that  I  had  found  a  true  intonation, 
or  an  exact  and  speaking  gesture ;  and 
then,  messieurs,  I  have  known  what  pleas- 
ure was,  what  it  was  to  do  a  thing  well, 
what  it  was  to  be  an  artist.  And  to  know 
what  art  is,  is  to  have  an  interest  for  ever, 
such  as  no  burgess  can  find  in  his  petty 
concerns.  Tenez,  messieurs,  je  vais  voiis  le 
dire — it  is  like  a  religion." 

Such,    making    some   allowance    for   the 
tricks  of  memory  and  the  inaccuracies  of 


2o6  An  Inland  Voyage 

translation,  was  the  profession  of  faith  of 
M.  de  Vauversin.  I  have  given  him  his 
own  name,  lest  any  other  wanderer  should 
come  across  him,  with  his  guitar  and  ciga- 
rette, and  Mademoiselle  Ferrario ;  for 
should  not  all  the  world  delight  to  honour 
this  unfortunate  and  loyal  follower  of  the 
Muses  ?  May  Apollo  send  him  rimes  hith- 
erto undreamed  of ;  may  the  river  be  no 
longer  scanty  of  her  silver  fishes  to  his 
lure ;  may  the  cold  not  pinch  him  on  long 
winter  rides,  nor  the  village  jack-in-ofifice 
affront  him  with  unseemly  manners ;  and 
may  he  never  miss  Mademoiselle  Ferrario 
from  his  side,  to  follow  with  his  dutiful 
eyes  and  accompany  on  the  guitar  ! 

The  marionettes  made  a  very  dismal 
entertainment.  They  performed  a  piece, 
called  Pyraimis  and  Thisbe,  in  five  mortal 
acts,  and  all  written  in  Alexandrines  fully 
as  long  as  the  performers.  One  marionette 
was  the  king  ;  another  the  wicked  coun- 
sellor ;  a  third,  credited  with  exceptional 
beauty,  represented  Thisbe  ;  and  then  there 
were    guards,    and    obdurate    fathers,    and 


Precy  and  the  Marionettes      207 

walking  gentlemen.  Nothing  particular 
took  place  during  the  two  or  three  acts 
that  I  sat  out  ;  but  you  will  be  pleased 
to  learn  that  the  unities  were  properly 
respected,  and  the  whole  piece,  with  one 
exception,  moved  in  harmony  with  clas- 
sical rules.  That  exception  was  the  comic 
countryman,  a  lean  marionette  in  wooden 
shoes,  who  spoke  in  prose  and  in  a  broad 
patois  much  appreciated  by  the  audience. 
He  took  unconstitutional  liberties  with 
the  person  of  his  sovereign ;  kicked  his 
fellow  marionettes  in  the  mouth  with  his 
wooden  shoes,  and  whenever  none  of  the 
versifying  suitors  were  about,  made  love  to 
Thisbe  on  his  own  account  in  comic  prose. 

This  fellow's  evolutions,  and  the  little 
prologue,  in  which  the  showman  made  a 
humorous  eulogium  of  his  troop,  praising 
their  indifference  to  applause  and  hisses, 
and  their  single  devotion  to  their  art,  were 
the  only  circumstances  in  the  whole  affair 
that  you  could  fancy  would  so  much  as 
raise  a  smile.  But  the  villagers  of  Pn^cy 
seemed  delighted.     Indeed,  so    long   as   a 


2o8  An  Inland  Voyage 

thing  is  an  exhibition,  and  you  pay  to  see 
it,  it  is  nearly  certain  to  amuse.  If  we  were 
charged  so  much  a  head  for  sunsets,  or  if 
God  sent  round  a  drum  before  the  haw- 
thorns came  in  flower,  what  a  work  should 
we  not  make  about  their  beauty  !  But 
these  things,  like  good  companions,  stupid 
people  early  cease  to  observe :  and  the  Ab- 
stract Bagman  tittups  past  in  his  spring 
gig,  and  is  positively  not  aware  of  the 
flowers  along  the  lane,  or  the  scenery  of 
the  weather  overhead. 


BACK   TO   THE   WORLD 

f~\F  the  next  two  days'  sail  little  remains 
^^^  in  my  mind,  and  nothing  whatever  in 
my  note-book.  The  river  streamed  on  stead- 
ily through  pleasant  riverside  landscapes. 
Washerwomen  in  blue  dresses,  fishers  in 
blue  blouses,  diversified  the  green  banks ; 
and  the  relation  of  the  two  colours  was  like 
that  of  the  flower  and  the  leaf  in  \.\\<z  forget- 
me-not.  A  symphony  in  forget-me-not ;  I 
think  Th^ophile  Gautier  might  thus  have 
characterised  that  two  days'  panorama. 
The  sky  was  blue  and  cloudless  ;  and  the 
sliding  surface  of  the  river  held  up,  in 
smooth  places,  a  mirror  to  the  heaven  and 
the  shores.  The  washerwomen  hailed  us 
laughingly  ;  and  the  noise  of  trees  and 
water  made  an  accompaniment  to  our  doz- 
ing thoughts,  as  we  fleeted  down  the 
stream. 

The  great  volume,  the  indefatigable  pur- 
14 


2IO  An  hiland   Voyage 

pose  of  the  river,  held  the  mind  in  chain. 
It  seemed  now  so  sure  of  its  end,  so  strong 
and  easy  in  its  gait,  hke  a  grown  man  full  of 
determination.  The  surf  was  roaring  for  it 
on  the  sands  of  Havre. 

For  my  own  part,  slipping  along  this 
moving  thoroughfare  in  my  fiddle-case  of  a 
canoe,  I  also  was  beginning  to  grow  aweary 
for  my  ocean.  To  the  civilised  man,  there 
must  come,  sooner  or  later,  a  desire  for 
civilisation.  I  was  weary  of  dipping  the 
paddle  ;  I  was  weary  of  living  on  the  skirts 
of  life;  I  wished  to  be  in  the  thick  of  it 
once  more ;  I  wished  to  get  to  work ;  I 
wished  to  meet  people  who  understood  my 
own  speech,  and  could  meet  with  me  on 
equal  terms,  as  a  man,  and  no  longer  as  a 
curiosity. 

And  so  a  letter  at  Pontoise  decided  us, 
and  we  drew  up  our  keels  for  the  last  time 
out  of  that  river  of  Oise  that  had  faithfully 
piloted  them,  through  rain  and  sunshine, 
for  so  long.  For  so  many  miles  had  this 
fleet  and  footless  beast  of  burthen  charioted 
our  fortunes,  that  we  turned  our  back  upon 


Back  to  the    World  211 

it  with  a  sense  of  separation.  We  had 
made  a  long  detour  out  of  the  world,  but 
now  we  were  back  in  the  familiar  places, 
where  life  itself  makes  all  the  running,  and 
we  are  carried  to  meet  adventure  without 
a  stroke  of  the  paddle.  Now  we  were  to 
return,  like  the  voyager  in  the  play,  and 
see  what  rearrangements  fortune  had  per- 
fected the  while  in  our  surroundings  ;  what 
surprises  stood  ready  made  for  us  at  home ; 
and  whither  and  how  far  the  world  had 
voyaged  in  our  absence.  You  may  paddle 
all  day  long  ;  but  it  is  when  you  come  back 
at  nightfall,  and  look  in  at  the  familiar 
room,  that  you  find  Love  or  Death  await- 
ing you  beside  the  stove ;  and  the  most 
beautiful  adventures  are  not  those  we  go 
to  seek. 


s 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


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